I've Learned My Lesson
by Aecoris
Summary: Post 5X22. What happens to Sam and Dean after it's all over? How can their relationship heal and how will they move on from all that has happened to them? COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

_Hey everyone. So after the season finale (which was great but so frustrating) I couldn't just sit there and keep all my thoughts in my head. I had to write something. So basically I thought of this story. It's made up of a bunch of little 'ficlets'. Basically each chapter is it's own little fic or scene with the brothers. They all deal with the brothers trying to resolve the issues between them that have torn them apart over the past two years or so. Each chapter deals with them healing in some way and/or resolving something. Some chapters will deal with things such as the whole Sam choking Dean incident, what Sam became when he was brought back, Ruby, Dean's alcohol problems and so on. All the while the brothers bond and I wanted to show them fixing their relationship and how they heal together._

_Most of the chapters are done. So this isn't exactly a WIP. I'll post the next parts after a few days or maybe sooner, all depending on if people are interested or not._

_This one starts is about Sam and Dean getting back together after it all. Dean saw Sam when he was standing by Lisa's house but Sam wanted to go off on his own. It didn't work out all too well. lol_

* * *

Dean hurried frantically down the hospital hallways to the room his brother was in. Stupid fucking Sam, Dean had warned him about this...about hunting alone. But no, Sam had whined that he needed to try to discover who he was after everything that had happened. That he was a different person now and he didn't know where he belonged.

"No Dean! Don't! I don't even think I'm human anymore." Sam had told him the night they were re-united, which was actually the same day that Sam had jumped into that hole. Dean had needed to take a breather (actually sob his heart out) and wanted to go sit out in the Impala for a bit when he had spotted Sam standing by it. Every fiber in his being had screamed that the man standing there was really Sam, not some shapeshifter or demon. However it happened, Sam was really back. Just like Castiel and Bobby. So Dean had rushed toward Sam, ready to embrace him when Sam had backed up.

"You're my brother aren't you?" Dean had asked, honestly not surprised by anything anymore.

"Well, yeah. But I could hurt you."

"No you won't dumbass." Had been Dean's response as he crushed Sam to him, holding on for all that he was worth. Sam held on too and they had cried and laughed together, trying to realize that after everything that just went down, they were both alive...somehow.

Sam had told him that he's pretty sure it was Castiel that pulled him out of Lucifer's cage. He said he'd only been there for what seemed like a few seconds before there was a bright light and then he was back on Earth, stumbling along the streets and somehow ended up here.

"I feel different thought Dean. I practically know I'm not human just from that alone. I feel more powerful, I feel colder like my temperature is screwed up and if anything I feel more together than I should."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Think about it. I just housed Lucifer in my body. There's no way a human body should be fine after that. It would be torn, bleeding; I would have been catatonic or something. But I feel fine; I'm definitely not human anymore."

"Okay....so? I don't give a shit. As long as you're okay."

"It doesn't bother you at all?"

"No. Why should it. In the five minutes we just talked it's obvious that you're still Sammy and not some evil creature."

Dean had asked Sam to come in, said they had enough room but Sam shook his head.

"Dean even though I feel fine, I feel confused. Like what am I supposed to do now? What is my purpose in life? I'm not the same person I thought I was. I just need some time to figure that all out. I guess I'll hunt for a bit and see how it goes."

Dean didn't like it one bit, he tried to protest but Sam was adamant about the whole thing. And despite his big brother instincts telling him not to…Dean let Sam do what he wanted because Sam was an adult now, he saved the whole freakin' world. He could make his own choices.

Before they separated Sam had opened the glove department of the Impala and grabbed something from it.

"I left this in the Impala so you could find it back when I thought I was going to stay dead. But now that I'm not anymore...I want to give it to you myself. I hope you'll accept it."

And with that he reached over and put Dean's amulet necklace back around his neck, where it belonged. Dean thought he hugged Sam for about five minutes straight after that. He promised his brother he'd never take it off again.

After some encouraging Dean finally got Sam to take the Impala with him, telling him he'd need it on his own. It would be a safe haven for Sam as well as a reminder of Dean and his love for the kid. Sam promised he'd call, that they'd keep in touch everyday. He kept his promise. Even today when he had called crying on the phone, telling Dean he needed him.

After what seemed like a lifetime Dean finally reached Sam's room. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his younger brother.

Boy had Sam changed.

He had grown his hair out even longer, which made sense since Dean was the only one that ever really cut it for him. Dean could easily say the look didn't fit him at all. Sam had gotten thinner as well, he looked about as scrawny as he did when Dean first picked him up for college, kid probably wasn't eating enough. But that wasn't what shocked Dean. The thing that had him cringing was the scar that started at his hairline, disappeared under the _fricken' eye patch _and continued down his cheekbone where it stopped near his lip. And then there was the fact that Sam's left hand lying across his chest had two of its fingers missing, the skin around the missing fingers looking red and scarred.

"Hey Dean." Sam said sheepishly, blushing. "Hunting accidents. The eye's older. The hand's the new one."

Dean stormed over to his brother and ripped off the eye patch, causing Sam to yell in surprise and Dean to gasp and horror. The scar had crossed over Sam's eye and the skin around it still looked a bit inflamed, even though the wound was older. Not to mention Sam's eye was covered in a grayish-white film. He was blind in his left eye.

He ruined his hand and his eye in a period on two months?

Stupid moron.

"You okay?" Dean asked lamely.

Sam nodded and he looked extremely nervous. Both his good eye and his blind eye filling with tears.

Dean couldn't find it too be mad at the poor kid any longer. He sat down beside his brother and took him into his arms.

"It's alright Sammy, I'm here."

"I'm sorry." Sam mumbled, repeating himself over and over and Dean wasn't sure what he was apologizing about.

"It's alright." Dean said anyway.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do." Sam continued. "A normal life didn't work and apparently these injuries are trying to tell me hunting isn't working out either."

Dean shook his head, chuckled. "I don't think anything is trying to tell you that those lives aren't meant for you. I think it's trying to tell you...to tell us that we aren't meant to be separated."

"Huh?" Sam sniffed, even though Dean knew his brother heard him clearly.

"Whatever life you choose Sammy. Whatever either of us choose to do…I think it will all go to hell unless we stick with each other. So whatever we do…we're both gonna do together."

Sam nodded against Dean's chest. "I think you're right."

_Thanks for reading this part. The next will deal with what happened with Lisa and other stuff that I don't want to give away. __Let me know if you like this idea I'm doing!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks for all of the reviews! I'm excited about posting this because there's so much I wish the show would address, but sadly...probably never will. I hope you continue to enjoy these little scenes I've written. Thanks so much to Gabi again for betaing this and for the wonderful compliment :)_

_This takes place not long after the first scene. When Sam gets out of the hospital and now they're in a motel._

* * *

"I can't believe you weren't telling me that you were getting hurt." Dean tried to not sound angry as he helped Sam lean against the headboard of the motel they stopped into.

Sam shrugged. "It didn't seem important. Just accidents on hunts."

Dean didn't even have to say anything. He just gave Sam that look. But for extra measure he spoke up. "Losing your sight in one eye and losing two of your fingers didn't seem important enough for you to tell me? Were you on a death mission or something?"

"No Dean, I just wasn't on the top of my game on my own I guess." Sam started and looked away. "And I actually only lost one and a half fingers. I still have the bottom half of my pinkie finger."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like that counts for anything."

"I just didn't want you to worry Dean. If I told you that these things happened you would have freaked out and gone ballistic. I didn't want to ruin the life you wanted to live. You would have acted like it was the end of the world and would have jumped on the first plane here."

Dean looked dumbfounded. "And that's exactly what I did, you moron. So why did you end up calling me anyway?"

Sam swallowed and Dean could tell that his brother was uncomfortable with the fact that he had called. He didn't know why though, Sam didn't know that it was exactly what Dean had needed. "First of all I was kind of high on painkillers. The nurse that was treating me made me go all sappy when she started asking me if I had family and if there was anyone I should call. I said I had you but I didn't want you to leave your house and family and come back to help your damaged brother. She started talking about how important family is to each other and that you would want me to call, that you would want to help me and it wouldn't be a problem at all. She also said that it's nice to have family with you at times like these. So I pretty much caved."

Dean took a deep breath and sat down on the bed next to his slouching brother. He grabbed Sam's head, pulled it down so it rested against his chest and then held on to him as though the world was sinking. He heard Sam muffle out an almost-sob at the gesture and he wrapped his arms around Dean's waist like he did when he was five.

"Guess what Sammy? She was right."

Sam tried to move his head up to look at Dean but instead ended up head-butting his older brother in the chin, causing them both to chuckle, the moment lightened for a bit.

"Sorry." Sam mumbled. "But...what about Lisa?"

"The only reason I even tried being with her is because you made me promise."

"But I thought that's what you wanted? Remember, we saw it in your dreams when we had to take that dream root crap."

Dean laughed, blushing at the memory. "Yeah. It's what I thought I wanted for a while as well. I thought it would be nice to marry her, help raise Ben and have you and some chick you fall in love with living a few blocks over. I pictured our families going on vacations and all this stupid shit."

"Why did you change your mind?"

Dean sighed, wondering when Sam would get it. When he would understand. Would he ever? "It was all a fantasy Sam. A big stupid fantasy. I had a fricken' one night stand with Lisa. I didn't even know her. I hadn't thought about her until we ran into her a few years back. I think it was the kid that had me thinking we could be a family. But Sammy...I think it was good that you made me make that promise because now I know what that life was like and I can stop dreaming about it now."

Sam gave Dean a questioning look. "I'm confused."

Dean slapped Sam on the head. "Stupid Sasquatch, for someone so smart you can be a real dumb-ass, you know that?"

Sam smiled a bit. "Yeah, you've mentioned that quite a few times before."

"Sammy, Lisa and Ben weren't my family. Lisa was some girl I found out I never knew at all. She was a real nice girl, we did have some things in common…but not enough to be in love. Ben was a sweet kid, but he wasn't my kid. It's impossible to get to know a ten year old kid and try to be a father to him Sammy, it is. I'd like to stop in from time to time and see him but for a kid who never had a father figure in his life, he didn't need me. I thought it would be cool to look after him three years ago when he looked up to me, but he doesn't anymore Sam. He's older and moved out of that hero-worship stage. Just like you did."

It was then when Sam gave him this look, so intense, like he was looking right into Dean's soul...his mind. It was that look that made him remember that Sam was not quite human anymore. Because no human could give him a look this seriously, this deep, with that much loyalty put into it. And it didn't even matter that Sam was looking at him with one eye, it still made him squirm.

"Dean. I never stopped. Didn't you know that?"

"Huh, what?" Dean spluttered. "But...college, Ruby... all that. You weren't afraid to go out on your own."

Sam looked away and rested his head back on Dean's chest. He didn't fail to notice how Sam felt colder than a human should. Almost like a dead body, but not quite. Dean shook the thought out of his head and focused on his brother's words.

"Jut because I went out on my own at times, which mind you was the one of the stupidest choices I ever made. Think I would learn after the first time, huh? But anyway, that didn't mean I didn't look up to you anymore. I just kept thinking that by leaving I was doing you a favor. I always have looked up to you and that never changed. I just didn't voice it as much and became an annoying snobby runt."

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

"Shut up Dean. I think I thought you were too much of a hero actually. I thought you could escape from the deal, I thought you'd be able to claw your way out of hell by yourself. I thought you'd be able to take care of me and yourself after Dad died. I expected you to make me feel better after both his and Jess's death. I thought you could bounce back from anything. When Lucifer broke free I went out and cried for nights in a row because I thought I had broken our bond for good. I let you push me away and teach me my lessons because I trusted you. I knew you wouldn't let me down and say yes to Michael. You're my hero and the greatest man I'll ever know and that's why I had to take that final jump and die instead of you. I thought the world needed a hero like you."

Dean swallowed hard. Damn, it was nice to hear these things. So much nicer to be open with each other than keeping so many secrets and not talking at all. He had needed to hear what Sam had just told him, he had needed it bad. But he wasn't going to let Sam know that.

"You make me sound like Superman." Dean tried laughing, but it gave him away when his voice cracked.

"Nah," Sam said. "You're batman."

Dean managed to smirk but shook his head. "I'm not the one that saved the world."

"I just put an end to what I started."

"Actually I did."

"It wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for me."

And then they looked at each other and in a split second they were laughing. Cracking up and rolling around on the bed. They laughed and held onto each other before Sam started to hurt from his injuries and his head started to pound. Sam pulled off his wet eye-patch and threw it onto the ground. The tears shimmering from his blind and ruined eye almost made it seem like he could see out of it again.

"Listen, Sammy." Dean wiped the tears from his eyes. "I have a confession to make. I haven't been with Lisa for about a month now."

Sam glared at him even though the water still falling from his eyes defeated the purpose.

"You jerk! You were mad at me for lying about my injuries and here you were lying to me as well!"

Dean smirked. "I told you it wasn't working out."

"It must have been pretty bad, huh?" Sam said, his voice dropping a bit.

"Can't stick a man who's been a hunter all his life in a house like that. Especially not a man who's been through Hell, literally and figuratively. Especially without his brother at his side."

"I'm sorry."

"So am I."

"So are we even?" Sam asked. Not only on this topic but everything that they have done to each other that they would rather not talk about.

"Yeah, we're even." Dean grinned and from that moment on, Sam knew that they were okay. They were back to being brothers again.

Finally.


	3. Chapter 3

"You saw what?" Sam screamed. He was pulling on his hair and looking like a mental patient.

"Chill out. I said your eyes changed. Last night when we were talking about the case. You got real mad when talking about how the demon killed that kid. Then your eyes changed."

"Oh god!" Sam looked like he was going to throw up. "They were black weren't they? I knew it! I'm one of them! I'm a freakin' demon!"

"SAM." Dean walked up and grabbed his brother by the shoulders, holding him in place.

"Don't touch me! I could hurt you Dean! Who knows what I could do!"

"You're not going to hurt me moron! If you wanted to you could have by now and I think we both know that's not going to happen. Besides, your eyes weren't black."

Sam stopped. Tilted his head. "They weren't?"

"No. They did have some black in them, but they also had hazel and they were kind of shining. It was like this weird swirling mixture."

Sam was back to looking like he was going to be sick. "That's just messed up. I...my gosh..." Sam obviously wasn't prone to passing out and Dean caught him before he could fall.

"Sammy. Relax. It's okay. What does this change huh? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You're fine. You're still more human than post people. You're still the same whiny health-food eating nerd."

"I'm not the same as I was before Dean. You know that. I don't act the same."

"Yeah, I know. But when it comes down to the basics, you are. Actually I think you're better than you ever have been to tell the truth. I know some things are hard but I think the both of us are better."

Sam looked like he agreed but then he bowed his head. "I think I know what I am."

"A freak?"

"Well yeah. But also I think I'm some cross between a demon, angel and human or something like that. I mean, demons have black in their eyes, as a human I had hazel and I don't know that shiny part sounds like an angel. Man...what the hell do you call that?"

"I'll tell you what I call that. I call that a Sammy."

Sam looked at Dean as if he was mad. "Dude, what the hell?"

Dean shrugged. "You're unique man. I can say that at least. I don't think anything's like you. Hell, you've always been unique. So I'll just call your kind a Sammy, since there's obviously nothing like you."

"Thanks a lot. Now I really am I freak."

"You've always been." Dean smiled. He grabbed Sam's deformed hand and traced the outline of it, letting his brother know it didn't bother him in the slightest. "There's no one like you Sammy, if anyone knows that it's me." And right then Sam knew Dean wasn't just talking about what species he might be, but the type of person he was. "And when it all comes down to it, you're my brother. Just Sammy."

"So my name is Sammy and I'm also 'a Sammy'?"

"Basically."

"And my non-human-ness doesn't bother you in the slightest? You're not worried I might be somewhat evil?"

"Like I said. I don't see you as non-human or some creature. I just see you as my brother. We've crossed the line to what should be considered evil a long time ago. Some angels were good, weird but good. But most were assholes just as bad as anything else we've encountered. Most demons are evil but some might not be, Crowley for example. Some just want to live their existence and not bother us. And then there are some crazy evil humans out there Sammy, you know that. I know you have some darkness in you from that demon blood, but you have a helluvalotta good in you as well. It's not what you are that makes you evil, it's what you choose."

Sam smiled, and Dean could tell he was grateful. "Thanks Dean. I'm glad we can talk like this now."


	4. Chapter 4

_So I have quite a bit more that I want to post to this story, but I'm unsure if I should. Is it seeming repetitive to you guys? Is there anything you'd like to see that I might be missing? I just haven't gotten much feedback so I'm unsure._

_This part deals with Dean's drinking problems that he obviously had during the 4th and 5th season. I felt it needed to be addressed._

* * *

Dean had stopped drinking yesterday and Sam had thought it best to for him to go through his withdrawal somewhere out in the open, with no one around and where he could get fresh air.

"You know this is the complete opposite of what I made you go through right?" Dean asked him through his tremors in the little tent they had bought. They were out in the middle of nowhere in some un-named forest.

"Yeah. And I know my experience was just terrible. So I wanted to try and make it better for you." Sam was sitting at Dean's side, as if on lookout. He slept a lot less these days because apparently Sammy's didn't get as tired as humans did.

"What was the worst part of being in the panic room?" One of Dean's withdrawal symptoms seemed to be asking personal questions. Sam didn't seem to mind, thank goodness.

"Well, I hated being tied down. I know you think I would have hurt myself, but I don't think I was coherent enough to do that even. I also hated being stuck in such a small, dark place. I felt like I was suffocating. But the worst part was having to deal with all that by myself." He answered, looking down at Dean from his one eye and then looking away.

Dean blinked up as his brother, following the trace of Sam's long scar and the red skin around his blind eye. Sam had just begun to take off his eye patch around Dean. It was a sign of trust, and Dean locking Sam in that panic room had been the exact opposite.

"I'm sorry Sammy. Fuck, I'm so sorry." Crap now the tears were getting to him. Stupid withdrawal shit.

But Sam just smiled at him, wiped the tears from Dean's eyes with his ruined hand, held onto him with the other. "Dude, you don't need to be apologizing. If anyone should it would be me. I've done things a hell of a lot worse to you."

Dean snorted. "Yeah, you were bad. But when I think about it, we were pretty much equal with our crappiness."

Sam held onto Dean harder as he shivered again. "Dean...I choked you man. I could have killed you. Now how does that not top the shitty brother scale?"

"Oh yeah. That...I forgot."

"You forgot? How the hell could you forget something like that?"

"I dunno." Dean mumbled as he buried his head into Sam's lap, trying to calm his pounding head. "I just chalked it up to the fact that it was the demon blood. I was being pretty frustrating too that day. I mean you wanted me to come along and I didn't. Even though I knew something bad was gonna happen, I should have gone with you to at least try to stop it. We weren't communicating at all."

Sam could feel himself getting angry and he tried to not take it out on Dean. No, never again would he take his anger out of his brother. "That's no excuse though Dean. Demon blood or not, Ruby or not, you're my brother."

"Exactly. I'm your brother. This is why you stopped, no matter what the blood was telling you to do. I knew you wouldn't do it Sammy, although I was a bit scared."

Sam let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "I was never going to. But you're right, that blood...when I was angry like that it was telling me to fight, to kill. I wouldn't ever let it take over like that but it was strong Dean. It was turning me into a completely different person."

"Tell me about it."

"I can't believe it took us this long to talk about this. What the hell is wrong with us?"

Dean chuckled. "A lot of things. But at least we're screwed up together right?"

"Yeah. And Dean? I'm sorry; I'll never do anything like that to you again. I promise you. And even though we suck at keeping promises, this one I'm gonna keep."

Dean smiled through the pain. "I know that Sammy. And for what it's worth...thanks. I needed that."

Sam nodded. After all of this talk he really needed a cigarette. "Hey, I'm going to go outside and smoke. I'll be right back okay?"

After Dean's nod Sam stepped into the warm summer night and snatched his cigarettes from the Impala. Holding the cigarette in his bad hand and the lighter in his good one, he lit the smoke and took one long drag. Looking up at the many stars, he held the smoke in his lungs for a while before releasing it into the midnight air. If his brother wasn't going through symptoms to rid himself of his alcoholism than a night like this would have been perfect.

Then Sam heard shuffling. He tensed only to see his brother stumbling over to him, long blanket wrapped around his body.

"Thought I'd join you out here." Dean said, his voice hoarse.

"You'll smell like smoke." Sam complained. He didn't want his brother to suffer from his habit, that's why Sam always smoked away from him for the most part.

"Do you think I really care about that? I still want to yank that cigarette out of your hand and throw it on the ground, but...

Sam looked down at him, cheeks flushing but he just shook his head. "Dean...after all we've been through...please don't tell me you're going to give me hell for simply smoking."

Dean leaned against the car next to him, a sign that he wasn't going to put up a fight. "But...it's bad for you." He said with a little smirk.

"Who knows if it even is? I mean, whatever I am now...it probably won't affect me."

"Right. Like with your eye and hand right?" Dean pressed the subject but everything in his body language and tired eyes showed he was teasing.

"Yeah well...I don't know. I just feel cold a lot. It's kind of weird, like my body doesn't know how to adjust to what I am. The smoking just makes me feel a lot warmer. It helps calm me too...all the thoughts that are going on in my head."

Dean nodded. "I can't say that I like it Sammy. But like I said to you before, you make your own decisions now. It's just I never thought you to be one to smoke...you know? Never thought you were the type, always thought I was more like that." Dean said, bumping Sam's shoulder.

"Yeah, well I think I'm more like you than either of us ever realized."

Dean nodded. "We're more similar than we ever gave each other credit for. In so many ways."

"Yeah." Sam took a drag of the cigarette. "Yeah. So...why did you come out here anyway? And give me the real reason.

Dean shrugged as he looked up at the sky. "I just wanted to look at the stars, it's a nice night."

Sam's throat closed up at that and suddenly he wasn't feeling the urge for nicotine anymore as he put out his cigarette on the ground. "Yeah, me too. How about we lay down?"

Sam could feel tears filling his eyes as Dean looked up at him. Watching the stars together was something they could always do together, even when they weren't on the best terms it was a way they could bond without speaking. When they could have peace and just be together in this chaotic world. And now that they finally had their peace and were basically worry-free, this favorite pastime just felt even greater.

"Your eyes just changed again." Dean pointed out as if he was commenting on the weather.

Sam was shocked, he hadn't felt anything different. Did he have any control over them changing? "Even my blind eye?"

"Yeah. It still has that milky white covering over it, but it changed too."

"Do they look creepy?" He asked his brother as they both lay down on the soft grass, staring up at the sky.

"Not at all. They actually look really fricken' awesome if you ask me."

"Then I'm glad."

Dean shifted closer to Sam and moved some of the blanket he had been wrapped up in so it covered his younger brother as well. Sam thought that might just be the second kindest gesture to ever come from his brother.

The first being that the whole time Dean was going through his symptoms, he kept one hand clenched tightly around his amulet.


	5. Chapter 5

_Thank you for the reviews. This is as far as I got and I think I planned on ending it here, but I still have a bunch more ideas. And it really wouldn't work ending it here anyway. So I'm going to write more but it's going to take longer between updates since everything now will be WIP instead of already completed._

* * *

"So...what are the downfalls of being a Sammy?" Dean asked one night when they were sleeping out in the Impala instead of a hotel room. They did this more often now, since the Impala practically was home, and what literally stopped the world from ending. They hadn't gone on a hunt in a while, not that they did many hunts these days. The brothers focused most of their time on traveling the country, seeing things they never had a chance to see, earning some long-overdo relaxation and just enjoying each other's company.

Dean could hear Sam sitting up from where he was laying on the backseat.

"Dean! What the hell type of question is that?"

"An awesome one."

"No. I'm serious. What do you even mean by that anyway?"

Dean didn't sit up with Sam, just stared out the windshield at the field ahead of them. "I mean like...all the creatures we know had some kind of secret weakness. Demons being holy water and devils traps. Spirits being salt lines and iron. Stuff like that. I know we've tried all the basics and nothing has affected you but did you find anything that hurts you?"

Sam chuckled a bit. "Why do you want to know man? Does it matter?"

Dean sighed. "Of course it matters Sammy. Because if there is anything I want to know so I can protect you from it. And so I won't accidentally hurt you with it."

Sam was quiet for a moment. "Thanks Dean."

"Don't thank me for doing my job. So, have you noticed anything?"

"Uhm...well I guess a downfall would be that I still get injured like humans, or at least it seems like it. Maybe my injuries heal a bit faster. I know my scar did but my eye never regained its sight. I think I might be built a bit tougher now...but I still seem completely mortal."

"I guess that's good in a way and bad also." Dean spoke up. "Anything more specific?"

"Umm...er...I...well...I kinda noticed that when I tried drinking alcohol it burned like my mouth and throat was on fire."

This got Dean to sit up and stare at Sam.

"Whoa, really?"

"Yeah. Didn't you wonder why I wasn't a drunken mess when you found me?"

"Like I was?"

"Dean..."

"Okay...I didn't think of that. I didn't think you would be like me and want to turn to alcohol."

"If I turned to demon blood when you were gone there was a good hope I would turn to alcohol once I was away from you again."

"You shouldn't. Alcohol's just as bad as the blood."

Sam rolled both of his eyes and looked at Dean, his blind one a little off. "You can't be serious. Don't be comparing your addiction with mine. The blood was ten times worse. It was turning me into someone else. Making me angry all of the time. If I hadn't had you by my side who knows...it could have turned me evil."

Dean shook his head. "And you don't think alcohol does the same exact thing? Sure it doesn't give you freaky powers and turn your eyes black but Sammy...that addiction was turning me into someone else as well. Did you see how weak I was? How irritable and tense? I was being a dick to you back then. I shouldn't have focused on the fact that it was blood that you were drinking and instead focused on the fact that you had a problem. I needed to stick by you and try to help, hear you out. I was angry all the time too, any addiction does these things."

Sam sighed and slouched down in the seat, his legs becoming crunched up. "How come you're right about everything? Really, you are."

"Because I'm oldest." Dean pointed out with a smirk. "So anyway...alcohol burns you?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking it's probably like holy water burns a demon."

"Apparently whoever brought you back didn't want you becoming an alcoholic?" Dean chuckled.

"That's how I took it."

"Well, I'm glad they did that then."

"Yeah, me too. Looks like now we both have to stay away from the stuff, huh?"

"It looks that way, bitch."

Sam turned quickly to look at Dean, obviously surprised by the last word. It had been a while since they exchanged words like this.

"I guess it is jerk...I guess it is."


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks for the reviews and for waiting patiently :) This chapter is a lot longer than the previous ones and so are the future chapters I have written. They are also getting more exciting so I hope you'll enjoy! This one deals with some of Sam's powers and an old "friend".

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Sam wasn't comfortable with facing demons anymore, which was why he was so hesitant walking into their latest case. He and Dean had only faced one other demon in their sporadic hunts, and that one had been a really low level demon that they had exorcised without a problem.

It was just...getting anywhere near those things made Sam squirm in his skin. It was probably a variety of things that made him so uncomfortable. Being that he had slept with a traitorous demon and trusted her, he drank demon blood for nearly nine months and the fact that the things reminded him of Lucifer and the whole apocalypse thing.

Yeah...he'd rather not face another demon ever again. But this one was torturing and killing families by the whole and the torture thing didn't sit well with Dean for obvious reasons. So it had to be stopped.

It had been a nasty little demon to track down but after a week or so they had located it with some help from Bobby and now here they were, barging into the house where they immediately heard screams coming from the second floor.

Dean waved toward Sam to follow him and they headed up the stairs. The screams continued to the right so they turned down the hall, knocking down doors until they came upon a man standing over a woman with a knife in the master bedroom.

The man looked up, his eyes flashing to black. "Well look who it is...the Winchester brothers, back from saving the world. And little Sam here has clawed his way out of Hell, no?"

Sam tried to calm the sudden panic he was feeling...he didn't know if he was up to this.

"What's wrong Sam? Cat got your tongue? Or should I say your eye? Doesn't seem like you're on the top of your game anymore, hmmm? What's the matter? Still shaken after housing the Devil?"

And that was when Sam noticed that he actually did begin to shake, but he didn't feel scared anymore. He couldn't explain the feeling that had taken over him...he felt almost exhilarated and powerful. Almost like when he was hyped up on demon blood...but this time it didn't feel bad, it felt right and instead of feeling angry and dark he felt confident and calm.

Dean must have taken his shaking the wrong way because he was slowly inching his way closer to Sam. "Keep talking all you want, in a few seconds your ass will be back in Hell." He growled but his whole body language screamed that he was worried.

"Oh, is that so?" Both of the brothers were taken aback by a female voice. The woman under the demon sat up, smirking as her eyes flashed black as well. "Surprised? The family's already dead and now you're trapped."

"Time to get this over with." The male sneered and glared over at Dean. "You first, I don't like the mouth on you."

In a split second Dean was thrown from Sam's reduced line of vision and slammed into a nearby wall. Sam turned just in time to see his brother's shirt get ripped to shreds by an invisible force, giant gashes appearing in his skin. Big drops of blood fell from the wounds as the heart wrenching screams poured through his throat.

It was like watching Dean get killed by the hellhounds all over again.

And then Sam was seeing red. As if on reflex he spun around to face the demon who was the source of his brother's pain, held out his hand and closed his eyes as a white light emitted from it. Soon Dean's screams were drowned out by that of the demon's and a mere second later it was all over. Sam opened his eyes to see that the male demon had exited the body and left it crumpled on the floor and the female one was shaking in the corner.

"Holy crap! Your eyes! What the hell are you?"

"Honestly I don't know, and I could care less." Sam said as he put up his hand again, even though he knew he didn't have any power left. It didn't matter anyway as the demon quickly exited the woman's body, her face still set in fear.

Sam didn't even bother to check if the woman was still breathing; the only thing his mind was focusing on at that moment was his brother who was lying in a corner in his own blood.

Dean looked up as Sam knelt down frantically next to him, the older brother's mouth was set in a painful smirk.

"Dude..." He panted, a little bit of blood dripping from his mouth. "That was freaking awesome."

Dean was bleeding to death, but he still had to let Sam know he wasn't against what just happened. Stupid self-centered jerk.

"Don't worry Dean, you're gonna be okay." Sam choked out as he removed the remains of Dean's T-shirt only to see just how bad his wounds actually were. In a matter of seconds these demons had literally almost tore his brother apart. No wonder not a single hunter had made it out alive tracking them. Sam looked away from where he could see Dean's organs peeking out, feeling sick to his stomach and on the verge of hyperventilating. In sheer panic Sam pressed his hands against Dean's bleeding wounds, as if trying to stop any more life from escaping.

"Please...please...you can't fucking take him! Not after all this! We just started to be brothers again you asshole!"

He didn't know who he was screaming at, God? Castiel? Lucifer? Himself? All he did know was that his brother was going to die right here in his arms and he was effortless to stop it.

Or was he?

"Sammy?" Dean's voice suddenly held strength behind it.

Sam looked down at Dean and his mouth fell open in shock. He lifted his hands up and while they were still covered in Dean's blood, the wounds were now closed. There were still scars, angry, red and fresh but the bleeding had stopped and for the most part Dean looked healed.

"Sammy, are you sure _you_ aren't God?"

"Shut up." Was all Sam found out he could say as he scooped his brother up in his arms and held him tightly against his chest. He only let go when Dean whimpered in pain.

"How are you? Are you still in pain?" Sam asked quickly, feeling bad that he hadn't addressed it at first.

Dean looked down at his wounds, poked at them. "I'm fuckin' sore as hell. But no...I guess I'm not in anymore pain. Jesus Sammy...what was that? You incinerated that demon and then sewed me back together with what? Your hands? Your mind?"

"I...I don't know. All I know is that I was so mad at what was happening to you both times and it just kinda..."

"So it's kinda like the whole 'the force is within you' shit?"

Sam couldn't help but crack up at the comment, tears still streaming down his face. His brother was still here, alive, breathing, joking and healed and everything was going to be okay.

But then the feeling in the room shifted and before Sam knew it there was another voice...

"Sam Winchester...you are quite the interesting man, I must say."

The voice was painstakingly familiar. Sam wasn't sure if it was weird to feel relieved by the voice of Crowley. A demon. For as badly as demons freaked him out and made him squirm he felt completely at ease with this one.

So Sam shifted Dean so he was leaning up against the wall and got up to face the demon who was wearing his trademark smirk.

"What do you want?" Sam asked, his voice held no venom in it, only exhaustion.

"Well I actually came here to get rid of those two rampant demons. I've been trying to track them down for a while now but wasn't able to locate them. But from the look of things..." Crowley eyed both bodies. He looked rather confused. "You already took care of things."

"Yeah we did. Would've helped if you'd have gotten here sooner." Dean grumbled from his position on the floor, obviously not worried about Crowley either. Sam thought that maybe they should be defending themselves, going after the demon...but he really saw no point.

Crowley ignored Dean's comment as he now stared at Sam. "So the rumors I've been hearing are true. You're no longer human anymore."

Sam shrugged like he could care less. "I guess not."

"Interesting..." Crowley muttered, pacing back and forth across the room, his eyes never leaving Sam. Honestly, it just made Sam roll his eyes. "So you obviously somehow killed the demon inside without harming the body...not that is matters since the sucker was already dead."

Sam was a little surprised to hear he hadn't harmed the body, that was good news. He felt confident. "Yeah, I did. So why are you still wandering around this room when I could do the same thing to you in a second?"

Crowley finally came to a stop and grinned. "Because you won't. You wouldn't kill me, you or your brother."

Sam watched as Dean's eyebrows shot up. "And what makes you think that?" The older brother asked.

"Because I've done nothing but help you two pigs. You have no reason to harm me and you won't because you don't hunt things like me."

"You're a demon!" Dean shouted before groaning in pain, Sam hurried over to his side.

"Dean...that doesn't matter. He's right. I mean...think about it. He's the only person...thing we've known that hasn't screwed us over."

"Huh?"

"Everyone we've ever known has hurt us or manipulated us in some way. Dad did o so many things to hurt us and use us for. Our lives were practically ruined because of him. I was used and betrayed by Ruby, Anna decided to turn her back on us, the angels were using us the whole time. Castiel even screwed us over not only by lying to us and tricking us about what the angels wanted when he knew the truth the whole time and let me out of that panic room! Even Bobby pushed us away for his zombie wife and Ellen abandoned us because of what Dad did. But actually...strangely...Crowley seems to be the only one we know that actually just helped us without hurting us."

"He said the Colt would kill Lucifer." Dean pointed out.

"I thought it would work!" Crowley threw his arms up. "I only knew just as much about it as you did. And I gave it to you without any gimmicks."

"Which is more than we can say for a lot of people." Sam continued.

"He's killed people!"

"I'm a demon for god's sake! And for your information I just don't go around killing anyone I bloody please. I help out the imbecile law enforcement by killing the people that they failed to catch in the first place."

"So you're saying you do good deeds?" Dean snorted.

"That's a nice way to put it." Crowley smirked.

"But you make deals! People's souls go to Hell!"

"Actually I quit that job. But I was much nicer than any other demon when it came to the selling of souls. After five years I would come back and offer them an out. They would lose whatever they sold their soul for and they would die early but their soul would be free from my contract and free from Hell."

"That sounds fair enough to me." Sam shrugged.

"Sammy!" Dean growled, although he didn't seem as convinced anymore.

"All I'm saying is that he's not that bad Dean, he doesn't even seem evil. And he's helped us defeat the devil in more ways than I can count."

"Well where was he when the whole Detroit thing and the battle was going on, huh?"

Crowley looked amused. "Are you insane? There was no way I was stepping in there; I'd get myself blown into pieces like your angel friend. There was nothing I could do and your brother made everything turn out peachy anyway."

Dean looked defeated, and downright exhausted. "Alright, alright. I'll stop harassing him."

"I appreciate that."

Sam rolled his eyes. "So if you not here to tell me how I killed that demon and healed my brother, then why are you here?"

"Healed your brother?" Crowley took that information by surprise and he really took Dean in and noticed how badly he had been wounded. Upon realizing that Sam had closed up those wounds due to his powers he started to slowly back up, actually looking at Sam like he was a threat now. Probably realizing that Sam was more powerful than he had once thought.

Sam sighed. "I told you I'm not going to hurt you."

That seemed to be enough for Crowley as he went back to smirking and to Sam's original question. "Well the reason why I quit my job was because I couldn't hold it up any longer."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked

"The demons found out I helped you two defeat the Devil and they aren't too happy. They all believed Lucifer was their salvation." He and Dean both snorted at that. "So needless to say, they are pissed and basically want me dead."

"So what you're saying is...that you have to stay out of other demons' radar?" Dean questioned.

"Precisely, yes."

"And you came to us because..." Dean continued.

Crowley now began to look uncomfortable and Sam caught on.

"You want to stick with us?" He asked.

"Not exactly, no." He said quickly. "But I need someplace to come to for a while if I feel the demons are on my tail."

"So why don't you just come? Why is it that you're basically asking us permission?"

"Because I needed to know if your brother was going to mutilate me or not. But since he obviously isn't then I guess you will have to get used to me."

"Oh joy." Dean moaned.

"I think the baby is a little cranky." Crowley turned to Sam. "You might want to bring him to bed." He pointed at the giant bed in the room.

"But we just can't stay here..."

"This was a set up the demons were playing to purposely lure you here. There was no real family living here, the house was actually for sale so you can get comfy. You and I both are in the same boat; the demons want us all dead for destroying the devil. And as an added bonus I can offer you protection from them."

"I guess I can take that." Dean yawned and Sam decided to take Crowley's advice and put him to bed.

When Crowley finally sauntered off into the kitchen after complaining that he was hungry Sam took the opportunity to talk to Dean in private.

"You know, I shouldn't be the one deciding who we could trust. I fell for the whole Ruby thing, so "I'm sorry for jumping on the Crowley train. I'll leave it up to you man."

Dean cocked an eyebrow. "He irks me sometimes, but mostly because he's weird. Sam...Ruby tricked you, hell she even had me fooled for a while. She tricked you because she could earn something from it. Sure, demons lie...but what would Crowley have to gain from lying to us? Absolutely nothing, we're basically on the same side. So I just say to hell with it and we'll help him if he helps us."

"You sure?" Sam couldn't help but sound surprised.

"Yeah." Dean chuckled, trying to fight off his weariness. "I trust your judgment Sammy. And if I really thought he was really bad news, I would have grabbed you and bolted out of here, mortal wounds or not. Plus, you could probably take him down in a heartbeat anyway if it turned out he was lying. And Sammy...you're not the only one that trusted people you shouldn't have. I trusted Anna and who knows how into the angel scheme she was. I trusted Castiel and like you said, he wasn't entirely on our side in the start. Hell I almost gave into Zachariah's demands and said yes, nearly causing the world to end."

"Nothing beats Ruby though..."

"Yeah? Maybe not." Dean yawned, fighting to keep his eyes opened. "But she was one hell of a liar. And all that matters is that everyone was manipulating us Sammy, everyone was trying to cause so called 'fate' to happen. And you know what? We didn't let it. We proved that no matter how many stupid sonuvabitches think something will happen, we still have a mind of our own. We're brothers...family that that comes before anything else."

Sam smiled then, feeling pretty tired himself. He also felt pretty drained, probably from using his powers. "Yeah, we did show them, didn't we?"

"Hell yeah we did."

"We grabbed fate and shoved it up their asses."

Dean's eyes grew wide for a second as he let out a loud laugh. "My, my, Sammy...didn't expect that to come out of your mouth."

"Don't blame me, it's because I happen to be around my big brother way too much."

Dean grinned, a twinkle in his eye, before he finally settled into the covers and relaxed.

For the first time in ages, he finally had a peaceful sleep free of nightmares.


	7. Chapter 7

_So here's the next part. I'm not sure if I'll write anymore because no one is telling me what they like in the story. I'm not trying to sound whiny but a lot of the reviews I got I couldn't really make sense of, they were hard to read or jsut confusing. I want to know what you guys liked because I'm writing the story for you and only one person did that last chapter. I want to thank bia1007 for always leaving a kind review and telling me want she liked. Because if I don't know what you guys liked or didn't like how will I know how to continue? I'm just asking for a little bit of input because I have so many ideas for this story and it's nice to hear. I want to write more but like I said, I don't know what you are enjoying in the chapters and what I should focus on so I might not._

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It was December and neither brother wanted to spend the winter in the cold this year so they decided to travel down to Florida where they could swim, go outside and just relax in the nice weather. Unfortunately today was a rainy and gloomy day with absolutely nothing to do. Sam was flipping through the channels on the outdated TV when Dean suddenly walked up to Sam with a pain of scissors and an evil smirk on his face.

"Oh god, what?" Sam grumbled as he turned off the TV and threw the remote on the bed, not liking what he was seeing.

"Your hair is atrocious. Seriously Sammy, it doesn't even look remotely like a guy's hairdo anymore. And I don't want to be seen with a brother that gets confused for a chick so I'm going to cut it, no matter what you say."

Sam thought about that for a moment. His hair was disgusting, even by his own standards. But he liked the fact that it pretty much covered up his eye and his scar when he was in public. But really...what the hell did it matter if people stared at him? They were mostly just curious anyway and how his hair looked now probably made people turn away from him more than simply his blind eye. He probably looked like a creep with his hair as long as it was...

He had always defined who he was by his hair. John never had liked it and it was another way to rebel against him. It was a way that he could separate himself from his big brother's shadow, wanting to show that he was different from Dean and his own person. But that wasn't who he was or wanted to be now. He wasn't a rebel any longer and he wanted to be known by everyone that he was Dean's brother. He was a different person.

Sam stood up next to his brother. "Cut it off." He said.

Dean was completely taken aback. "Whoa, really? I was expecting you to put up some kind of a fight."

Sam shook his head. "Use a weed-whacker if you have to. I just want it gone."

"All of it?"

"No! Not all of it moron. Just...I want it short. Not super-short. But shorter than I've ever had it before."

Dean stared at Sam for a moment; he seemed to be thinking, deciding his options. "Alright, I've got an idea. I'm gonna make you look freakin' cool. Man, I've always wanted to so this."

Dean was acting like a kid of Christmas Eve, he was that excited. Ever since Sam could remember Dean had cut his hair. Even though Dean always wanted to cut it differently than Sam wanted it, he always followed his little brother's wishes. Sam had always trusted Dean to give him the haircut he wanted, and Dean never was a disappointment. And although this time he was leaving it completely up to his brother to do what he always wanted, Sam still trusted him. Dean wasn't like other older brothers that would just chop off the younger's hair to make them look like they were ran over by a lawn mower to get a few laughs.

Sam was genuinely curious to see what Dean had in mind all these years for is hair and couldn't deny that he was a bit excited himself. It was also nice to get his hair cut by his brother again. After Dean had gone to Hell Sam had let it grow; only cutting it a bit when he felt necessary and that continued even when Dean had got back. It just showed how messed up things had gotten for them and he was so glad things were back to normal.

So while Dean sat Sam down in a chair and began cutting away his hair Sam let his mind wander to the topic of trust. It was obvious that he still trusted Dean with not only little things like his hair but with his life. He couldn't help but wonder if Dean trusted him again. Sam knew at one point Dean had stopped, back when he left the voicemail he told Sam he thought he was a monster and those words still cut through him every single day. Not only that but the day that Lucifer had raised Dean said to his face that he didn't trust Sam anymore and they could never be brothers again like they once were. He tried so hard to gain back Dean's trust, at times he thought he might have succeeded but he wasn't sure. He just hoped his brother could learn to trust him again someday, because he was never going to hurt him again.

Before Sam knew it Dean was done with the cutting and the shaving. His grin was as big as his face as he walked Sam over to the mirror in the bathroom. Dean grabbed the gel he used for his own hair and rubbed it into Sam's. Dean took off his shirt to shake the hair off of it and Sam tried not to wince as he caught glimpse of the long puckered scars decorating Dean's torso. The wounds that should have killed him. Sam pulled his eyes away and forced himself to look at his hair in the mirror.

Sam was impressed, he looked good...not just good but great actually. His bangs were the shortest they had been in years and Dean styled them so they fell nicely against his forehead, making it look smaller. It was still lengthy enough that it fit him, but it fell nicely, the longest hairs just touching the middle of the back of his neck. And Dean had given it this messy style which Sam couldn't help but admit was really cool. Actually the haircut made him look younger and instead of making the scar near his eye stand out in kind of blended in, made it also look cool instead of creepy.

"You like it?" Dean asked

"Yeah." Sam smiled, running his hands through his hair; he couldn't stop looking at it. "It looks really great Dean. Thank you."

"Meh, don't mention it. I was doing myself a favor anyway. Now I won't have to look at that mop twenty-four-seven." He chuckled, shaking his head. "I still can't believe you trusted me to do whatever I wanted."

"If I trusted you to say no to Michael I think I'd trust you with my hair." Sam said, the words coming out of his mouth before they could stop them. He let out a deep breath, why stop now if he already started? "Actually, I was thinking...remember after Lucifer rose you told me that you couldn't trust me anymore? That we couldn't be as close as we once were anymore?"

Sam watched Dean's face fall as he bit his lip. "Sammy..."

"Dean, it's alright. I was just wondering if you still felt that way."

Dean sat down on the toilet seat and looked up at Sam. "First of all I shouldn't have said that we couldn't go back to the way we were before. Me and you can overcome anything, and I shouldn't have jumped to that. Obviously it wasn't true, I mean look at us now."

"And the trust thing?"

"Well I did mean it that I couldn't trust you...at the time. I had been unsure for a while until you proved to me that you trusted me, and then the feeling was mutual. And now since you've been back Sammy...hell yeah, I know that I can trust you. I mean we understand everything including each other so much better, so of course I trust you, I trust you with my life. Just because you made a mistake doesn't mean you can't redeem yourself."

"So I'm not a monster then?"

Dean squinted his eyes at Sam. "What the hell? I told you I don't care that you're not human anymore! God Sammy, that doesn't make you a monster."

"Not that Dean." Sam wasn't surprised that Dean had forgotten. "The voicemail that you left when I went with Ruby before Lucifer was free...you told me I was a monster...a blood sucking vampire or something like that and you gave up on me."

Dean looked Sam dead in the eye with a cold expression. "That's not even funny."

"What?"

"Don't even joke about something like that, why would you make that up?"

Sam shook his head, did Dean really not remember? "I'm not making it up. That's what you told me Dean, that's why I decided not to turn back and just go with Ruby."

Dean continued to stare at Sam before something lit up in his eyes. "Do you still have it in your phone?"

"Yeah. I still listen to it sometimes, when I feel like beating myself up." Sam told Dean and in a flash the older brother had grabbed Sam's phone and put the voicemail on speaker. The further the message went along the more red Dean's face became. When it finished he turned to Sam, his whole body shaking.

"Call Crowley here." He growled.

"What? Why..."

"Just do it!"

So Sam did. He closed his eyes and said the demon's name. It was another power Sam found out he had, probably due to the demon blood in him that mixed with whatever else was inside him now. Not that the power came in very useful except when they needed Crowley, other than that they didn't want any demon in their sight.

Crowley appeared mere seconds later, his face in a tight scowl. "The hell!" He hissed. "I was just about to win a game of poker and scam a bunch of fools out of their well earned cash."

"Now's not the time to be crying about your money." Dean spat in his face, causing Crowley to step away.

"What crawled up his ass?" He looked at Sam who only shrugged.

"I have to ask you one question, that's all and then you can leave." Dean told the demon.

"You summoned me here for a single question?"

"Yes, because you're the only one that can answer. Now tell me, can demons alter voicemail on phones?"

"What?"

"Voicemail genius. If I was to leave a voicemail on Sam's phone, could a demon alter it so it says something that I never said?" Dean explained and then Sam finally understood. Dean never did leave the voicemail...Ruby...

Crowley looked back and forth between the brothers, obviously knowing something was up. "No. We can't do anything like that." He said. "But it sounds like something that your feathered friends could be capable of."

Angels.

"Sonuvabitch!" Dean screamed, throwing his arms up into the air. "Fuckin' Zachariah!"

Crowley backed up even more, actually looking a bit scared. "I'm going to leave now." He said to no one in particular.

"Go! Get the hell out!" Dean yelled as the demon vanished into thin air with a roll of his eyes. Dean then started pacing the floor.

"Shit Sammy, it had to be Zachariah. He had me trapped in that room and that was where I called from. No wonder he let me get through to your voicemail just so he could screw with it. I called to tell you that I was sorry and that I would never give up on you..." Dean was bound to have continued if Sam didn't blurt out laughing at that very moment.

"Dude what the hell is wrong with you? How is any of this funny?" Dean growled, now pulling at his hair.

"Don't you see Dean?" Sam got out between bursts of laughter. "They tried so freakin' hard to cause this battle with Lucifer and Michael...for one of them to win! They pulled us against each other and tricked us so many times...but for what? Everything they did was a complete waste of time! Did they once stop and think that maybe we wouldn't...no...couldn't kill each other?"

Dean finally relaxed, all the tension melting from his body. "I guess that is sort of funny."

"The whole time we were fighting and not trusting each other wasn't even because of our own actions. It was because of what he had been forced or tricked to do!"

Dean smirked. "Guess we just should have talked with each other in the start instead of keeping secrets and being afraid of what the other would say."

"Does it even matter though?" Sam pointed out. "They were so convinced that we had this certain 'fate' when after all that happened to us, we still saved the world and made it out alive. God...it's just this whole time I thought you thought I was some monster when you never even said anything close to that."

"Again, that was the no talking thing. You were afraid to bring it up to me." Dean let out a little laugh of his own. "Man, we have one sucky life."

"Yeah, we did. But I think it's time to put a stop to that, don't you?"

"Couldn't agree more Sasquatch."


	8. Chapter 8

_Thank you so much for the reviews. This part is a bit shorter again and deals with Lisa. Next up will be Christmas and Dean's birthday! Hope you're still enjoying. Any ideas and comments are appreciated._

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Sam was reading a book on the motel bed and his brother was in the shower when Dean's phone buzzed. Sam grabbed the phone without thinking twice. It was either Bobby with a message for both of them or one of Crowley's annoying inappropriate phone chain messages that he sends them. Sam had to give the demon credit though because Dean enjoyed them, it kind of had his brother back on the demon's 'good' side.

But he was surprised when the name on the text message said 'Lisa' and out of shock he opened the text.

'Hey dean how r u? i have a question to ask u so call me as soon as pssbl.'

Sam was still staring at the message, trying to decide what it meant when Dean walked out of the bathroom bare chested and in a pair of shorts, rubbing a towel through his hair.

"Dude, are you snooping through my phone?" Dean asked with a teasing tone and Sam panicked, startled as he dropped Dean's phone.

"I...uh...I thought it was Bobby so I just checked..."

Dean chuckled. "Relax Sammy, it's fine. So what did he want..." He stopped as he picked up his phone and read the message. "Huh...I guess I should call her. Maybe it's something to do with the supernatural."

"I'll head outside at let you guys talk." Sam couldn't help but have a bad feeling about this. Lisa probably missed Dean, wanted him to come back and be a family with her and Ben again. He should have realized it was bound to happen sooner or later...

Dean gave Sam a questioning look. "No, you don't need to do that. Just stay in here, it's not like it's a private call or anything."

Sam managed a smile. "It's alright; I was going to go have a smoke anyway, so I'll leave you alone anyway."

Dean still looked confused but just shrugged. Sam stepped outside, his mind whirling as he tried not to eavesdrop on his brother's conversation. He smoked two cigarettes, wondering why he didn't pick up this habit earlier instead of demon blood and paced back and forth. He went through about a hundred different scenarios in his head before he heard Dean calling his name.

"Sammy! I've called you ten times already! Get your ass back in here!"

Sam stopped and stared at Dean who was standing in the motel doorway, shivering. He checked his watch and realized he'd only been waiting for Dean for five minutes...it had seemed like hours.

"Sammy? You alright?" Dean asked. He had his worried face on now because of Sam's lack of response and trudged forward on the ice cold cement. Dean grabbed Sam's arm and gently nudged it. "Come on, let's get you inside, it's freezing out here."

Sam just nodded and followed his brother inside. Dean sat him down on the couch and stared at his little brother. "What's wrong Sammy? You looked sick, like you used to when you got done with one of those visions...oh no it isn't the visions again is it? Or your powers? Sammy..."

Sam shook his head, tried to tell himself he'd be alright with Dean going back with Lisa, tried to accept it. "No, I guess I just felt sick. But I'm okay now, honest."

Dean gave Sam a look like he didn't believe him. In fact it would be kind of hard to believe that lie. While Sam could still get hurt, he seemed to be immune to disease. He never got sick, even when Dean had been ill with the flue and Sam had hovered over him day and night. Sam hadn't got sick since he was human; the worst that happened to him now was if he felt too hot or cold from the weather or if he felt dizzy.

Dean put a hand on Sam's forehead anyway to feel his temperature. When he seemed convinced that Sam was fine he sat next to his brother.

"So I talked to Lisa..."

"Yeah?" Sam managed to squeak out, preparing for the worst.

"And she asked if me and you would like to join her for Thanksgiving."

The spinning thoughts in Sam's head finally came to a standstill so quickly that he felt out of breath. "Wh...what?"

Dean smirked a sad smile and put his hand on Sam's shoulder. "Dude, you thought I was going to leave to go with her, didn't you?"

Sam tried to smile but felt like crying, so he just ducked his head down. "Don't you want to? Maybe she's asking because she misses you and wants to get back together."

Dean let out a quick loud laugh. "She's inviting us to join Ben and her boyfriend. She doesn't talk to her family; they're a bunch of weirdoes. She's going to say we're her half-brothers. Plus she lives in Georgia so it will be nice and warm there."

Sam's eyebrows shot up. "Really? But...I know you liked her so much...you don't..."

"Sammy." Dean interrupted. "I already told you about Lisa. Yes I liked her, but we didn't work out and weren't meant for each other. I still like her as a friend...and we talked and she'd like us to always keep in touch and stop by...and by 'us' that means me and you Sammy. She said she'd like us to still be a part of Ben's life as his uncles."

"Oh...well..." Sam let out a sigh of relief and a small laugh. "That sounds nice...that's good, I'd like that."

Dean smiled back. "I'm not gonna leave you Sammy. It's me and you against the world and it always will be."

Pulling up in Lisa's driveway, Dean was greeted by a giant hug from Ben as he got out of the Impala.

"Uncle Dean, I missed you!" The ten-year old shouted and Dean laughed. Lisa had Ben calling him uncle since they realized things weren't going to work between them, but it was still strange to hear.

"Missed you too kiddo." Dean said and then Ben turned to Sam and tilted his head way up to look at him. At first Ben looked a bit intimidated and scared and then Sam smiled and blushed, looking anything but threatening and Ben grinned in response.

"Uncle Sam?" He asked, his expression now all curious.

Sam let out a small laugh, 'uncle Sam' reminding him of a certain patriotic old man. "You can call me Uncle Sammy if you want."

"Cool." Ben said, his gaze now locked on Sam's eye patch and scar. "Did you lose your eye?" He asked, but instead of sounding disgusted he sounded fascinated.

Sam shook his head with a small grin. "No. I'm just blind in that eye. I was...in a car accident." He held out his ruined hand for Ben to see

The young boy's eyes grew wide at that. "Cool!" He practically shouted, now looking up at Sam as if he was superman.

Lisa came out then, grinning wide as she looked between the brothers. She hugged them both tightly, obviously happy to see them together again and invited them inside.

There the brothers met Lisa's boyfriend Jeff and introduced each other. They talked for a while and Sam noticed that Lisa seemed genuinely happy. Also, Dean seemed fine with everything as well, except when he'd look over at Ben he would get this strange almost-sad look in his eyes for a few seconds.

Sam knew they had so much time now to decide what they wanted to do with their lives, but why did it all have to be so difficult? Wanting one thing in life might force them to have to live without something else they wanted. It was all so confusing and now that they had all these open options, Sam found that he actually couldn't decide which road would be best for him.

All he and Dean could do was just live their life, and see where the road takes them.

While Lisa was finishing with dinner Ben asked Dean to go outside and play catch with his new baseball.

"Sure, I can't remember the last time I played baseball, or any sport for that matter." Dean smiled and for the first time in his life Dean seemed carefree, throwing the ball without having to aim at a target, running after it without the fear of some creature being on his tail. His laughter came easily and so did his smile.

But then Lisa called Ben in to help set up and it was just Dean outside holding a glove and ball and Sam sitting on the porch.

"Hey." Sam heard his brother's voice and looked up. Dean was standing above him holding out the other glove to Sam. "Want to join me?"

"I thought you were playing with Ben."

"I was and now I want to play with you. Gosh Sammy I don't think we've ever had the chance to play catch once when we were kids, did we?"

Sam thought about that for a moment. "No we didn't. But Dean...I probably won't be any good...with my eye and hand..."

"Don't give me that crap. That is the most pathetic excuse I've ever heard. You have another perfectly good eye to see out of and you can catch with your good hand. Now come on." Dean grabbed his brother's sleeve and pulled him up. Sam was shocked by the amount of excitement he heard in his big brother's voice.

Dean threw first and immediately it was like he was a child again. Dean's laughter might have came easily with Ben but it wasn't exactly true laughter, true happiness. With Sam it was like Dean was in all his glory, his eyes shinning and joking comments flowing out naturally. Sam had been so worried that Dean might want a kid, to play with to raise and to watch over...he had been blind to the truth. Dean already had his child in Sam. The one he taught how to walk and read, the one he looked over day and night and cried during his high school graduation.

Dean had never been missing any of that, because he already went through it.

And watching Dean throw the ball back to him, the happiest he's ever seen his brother...Sam knew Dean was absolutely fine where he was now. He didn't need Ben or even a child of his own. Sam was Dean's brother, son and best friend all rolled into one.

So it was nice to have other people like Ben and Lisa to fall back to when you felt like it, to call family. Because really, now they could finally have people in their lives without fearing if they would be in danger. But when it came down to it, Sam figured at the end of the day it would just be him and Dean...like it should be.


	9. Chapter 9

It had been planned out by both brothers that they would go out on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas day inside. So even though either of them could drink anymore they hit one of the bars that were open.

Dean had to admit he was having fun, even without the help of alcohol he was having a blast. He and Sam played some cards and darts. The card game turned out to be a mess for Sam because he was too clumsy with his missing fingers and kept dropping and revealing the cards. But Sam made light of the whole thing, laughing and cracking jokes which made the whole table fill with humor.

Dean was just trying to teach Sam how to adjust to pool with his messed up hand when it started.

"It can't be! Winchester? Sam and Dean Winchester?"

Dean turned around, automatically stepping in front of his brother on instinct when he saw two men approaching them with smirks on their faces. He automatically knew they were hunters even though he never saw them before in his life.

"Word around said that the Winchesters died and came back to life." The red-head laughed. "Other hunters have claimed to have killed 'ya...and yet here 'ya are right in front of our own eyes."

Dean didn't like the look on the men's faces. They weren't here to shake hands and say hello. "Just let us go and we can go our separate ways. We're not looking for any trouble."

The blonde man snorted. "We might have believed that months ago...but thing is...word travels fast. Sam Winchester was the man that let Lucifer out of the pit. He's the reason why the devil is walking the earth."

"I fixed what I let happen." Sam butted in before Dean could stop him. "I put Lucifer back in his cage, it's over."

Both men burst out laughing. "Yeah, how'd you do that? Put him on a leash and drag him down to Hell? We're not morons! He's the devil! No one can stop the devil!"

"Well I did!"

"You're a fucking monster!"

"You know what?" Dean growled out, staring both men down. "I'm sick and tired of everyone putting the blame on my brother. I am as responsible as he was with the whole apocalypse thing."

"Dean…" Sam hissed but Dean just ignored him.

"Hell, I'm the one that started the whole thing when I was in Hell. So if you want to call anyone a monster, it's me…not Sammy."

"Really, now?" One of the men snickered. "I guess now we'll have two of you to kill."

That was the moment when the real chaos began. Blondie went to throw a punch at Sam but Dean managed to push him down and land on top of him. Unfortunately that left Sam with red-head who was undoubtedly stronger. It didn't help that Dean was tangled up with the other man who wasn't giving up any time soon.

"Other hunters are looking for you, you know. Even if 'ya manage to escape from us, other's will find 'ya." Red-head chuckled as Sam lunged at the man only for him to jump out of the way. "You're disabled now Winchester." He said as he landed a punch to Sam's gut. "Even the smallest of disabilities can mean the difference between life and death with a hunter. Only the strong will survive."

"I am strong." Sam grunted out as he escaped the man's vice hold...just as the frightened bartender approached red-head from behind, wine bottle in hand, obviously trying to put an end to the fight.

Dean watched in horror as red-head saw the hit coming and grabbed Sam's forearms. He spun them around, just in time for the wine bottle to come crashing on Sam's shoulder instead.

Sam let out an ear-bleeding scream that Dean could only remember hearing a few times come from his younger brother's mouth.

Time seemed to stop then as everyone turned to stare at Sam. He was twitching violently on the floor, a thin layer of steam coming out from his body where the alcohol had made contact with his skin.

Sam had told him it was bad, but Dean never expected it to be that bad.

Before Dean could even jump up the red-head had him pinned to the floor and for the first time Dean had to admit that he didn't have the upper hand. Neither he nor Sam had been training or exercising and they only went on a handful simple hunts now and then. The man on top of Dean had him overpowered and left him helpless as red-head landed punch after punch to Dean's face.

All Dean could do was listen as Sam screamed again and the blonde man chuckled. At least if they were going to die, they would be going down together.

"Well looky here, it seems that I came just in time for the party!"

Suddenly red-head let out a scream as he was thrust from Dean and thrown into the air. Dean struggled to sit up just in time to see Crowley throw the hunter off of Sam without moving a muscle. The demon then cocked his head at the bartender who was still standing in the same spot, shaking in his boots.

"I'd run away now if I were you." Crowley said and that's all it took as the man scurried out of the building. The few other people that had been in the bar and were watching the fight also ran out. They were probably more frightened from Crowley appearing out of nowhere rather than his threat.

Dean slowly made his way over to his younger sibling. Sam was out cold, his body still shaking but he was breathing. He was going to be okay. Dean looked up then at Crowley...the demon that just saved their lives.

"You...you saved us..." Dean gasped as he held onto his throbbing face.

Crowley shrugged and grabbed a nearby glass of beer before chugging it down. "I missed the best part of the fight, so there was no point in it lasting any longer."

And then if things couldn't get any weirder Dean heard the flutter of wings and turned around to see Castiel standing in the middle of the bar.

"Oh shit." Crowley muttered and stepped backwards. But what took Dean by absolute surprise was that the demon could have vanished into thin air right then but he didn't. He stayed and if Dean didn't know any better he would say that Crowley almost looked...protective as he stood between the angel and the brothers.

A thought struck Dean. Castiel had showed up now but where the hell had he been when they were getting their asses kicked? "Cas? Why the hell didn't you show up five minutes ago?"

Castiel's face remained emotionless. "I could not intervene. I am here now only because these hunters have seen how your brother was harmed by the alcohol. They know he is something different and I must erase their memory."

Dean couldn't believe his ears. "So you were going to let us die?"

"You are not dead Dean; you seemed to have gotten help from other places." The angel said, sparing a quick glance at Crowley.

"Yeah, and it's a sad day when you can trust a demon with your life over an angel."

"I am the one that ripped you from Hell, remember that."

"And you lied to us countless times Cas! For the first year I knew you, you were secretly for the apocalypse. Hell, you're the one to blame for it starting, since you let Sam out of the panic room!"

Castiel finally showed a hint of emotion...confusion. "You were not supposed to know about that."

Dean smirked then. "Yeah...well word travels fast around here. I've known for quite a while now, a few months after we saved the world."

"The boy doesn't seem to like you that much, overgrown bird. Maybe it would be in your best interest to leave." Crowley butted in, a look of amusement on his face.

Castiel turned to the demon, looking anything but happy. "I am the one that gave these boys their future."

"If it wasn't for me, they wouldn't even have a future right now and the world would be burning to the ground!"

"I was acting on the word of God; you only had your best interests in mind." Castiel responded in his too-calm voice.

"At least I have a mind of my own and I'm not a robot following orders from a man who was going to let the apocalypse start!"

"God knew what he was doing."

"Really? Then if I never came into the picture, tell me how God was going to prevent the end of the world. Please, enlighten me oh heavenly one."

Castiel stopped so suddenly Dean knew Crowley had won.

"Perhaps you are right in some ways. Even as a spawn from Hell, you did save the world. Perhaps the brothers will be better in your hands."

It was Crowley's turn to go silent as he and Dean watched Castiel walk over to the two hunters and touch their foreheads, erasing their memories from the minutes before. Then the angel turned to face Dean.

"You need to be more careful. I cannot keep clearing out the minds of humans. This was your warning. If hunters find out that Sam is no longer human, they will not stop until he is destroyed."

Sam moaned and Dean cradled his brother tighter in his arms. "You took him out of Hell."

"No." Castiel replied. "That was God that returned Sam to Earth. It would not be right for the man that saved the world to spend an eternity suffering with Lucifer."

"So then why is he...different?"

"No man could house Lucifer and come back human. Sam would have been broken beyond repair. God did what he could to Sam so he could function normally. He is a unique creation from God, one of his own kind."

"And exactly how is he...different?" Dean continued, finally getting answers to the questions that ran through his mind so often.

"Sam's body still has demon blood in it, but he is still part human and also has the purity of heaven. He has powers that can only be used for good, in certain occasions. He no longer has the ever present anger running through him like he did before. What attracted Lucifer to your brother is gone. He has been granted a fresh start."

"And this alcohol thing?"

"Every being needs a weakness. Sam can not be as strong as he is without one. I must be going now."

"Oh no!" Dean shouted. "You nearly let us get killed, the least you could do is help get Sam into a motel."

Castiel shook his head. "I have already interfered enough by convincing Sam to re-unite with you, I have done enough."

It took Dean a minute to understand just what the angel was implying. "Are you saying...were you the nurse that talked to Sam in the hospital?"

"Yes I was. I can manipulate a form of any human with my new role in heaven."

"But...why? Why did you help us?"

"My job in heaven is to make the world a better place. I believe what I did that day was the first step in doing so." And with a flutter of wings, the angel was gone.

"Well, that was incredibly cheesy, and creepy." Crowley spoke up. Dean almost forgot that he was still there.

Dean couldn't help but smirk. "Tell me about it."

Crowley proceeded to help Dean move Sam into the Impala and then into the motel without a word. Dean knew he should be creeped out or worried about a demon interfering with them, but all he felt was relief. Relief that someone was offering to help, that he didn't have the responsibility on his only his own shoulders.

But he was still freaking curious.

So after he tended to Sam and laid him in the bed Dean turned to face the demon, never leaving Sam's side.

"So I don't believe that the reason why you showed up today was because you were getting chased by demons. So why are you here, what do you want?"

Crowley cocked an eyebrow at Dean. "You really think I want something? Boy, you are even stupider than you look. And you don't look very smart to begin with. Here, let me explain to you slowly. I never ask anything of my superiors, I just listen and do what they say."

"You see Sam as your superior?"

"Now you're getting it."

"So that's why you saved our lives? I don't get it; you could have just let us die."

Crowley sighed, obviously getting frustrated. "Listen, the reason why I'm not like most demons you hunt is because I've always followed orders from higher ranking demons. Surprisingly not all demons like to be told what to do. So they just run free getting angrier and angrier or getting in trouble. I always did exactly what was told of me and worked for other demons. So I got the best of the best. I never got punished; I never had to concentrate on what was truly wrong with me because I was always following orders. I didn't care about doing all the wrong stupid things like other demons and it also made me smarter than most, which is why I understood about Lucifer and how he would just kill us all."

"So you're trying to tell me that you're a good demon?" Dean asked

Crowley let out a laugh. "Boy, there is no such thing as a good demon. We all just do what we want and only care about ourselves. But luckily for you, both of us wanted the same thing with getting rid of Lucifer. And now all these demons are not only after me, but after you two as well. While I am no _'good'_ demon, I _am_ on your side, so if that's what constitutes as good for you then I guess I am. I not only need your brother's protection to keep me alive but I also need him alive or I'm dead."

"So why keep me alive then? You obviously only need Sam, I'm of no use to you."

"Do you really think your brother would be willing to live if you died? Let alone help me? Besides, you've grown on me Dean. I find you interesting...a soul that has gone to Hell but came back human...You've been through exactly what I have been through, just not as long. But while we demons can push aside the memories of Hell by not feeling anything or killing...you can't do that. You feel everything and yet you still have to try to live without getting any release. You have it harder than any demon does." Crowley said and Dean swallowed, this demon probably understood him more than anyone else ever would. For the first time he actually felt a connection with him.

"Honestly, I'd probably be a drooling catatonic mess if it weren't for Sam. Or a serial killer. Either one. It's surprising how quickly I can forget about what happened to me in Hell just by looking at Sam and ever since we've worked things out...things have been so much easier for me. It'll never be perfect but I'm a lot better than I ever expected to be."

Crowley almost looked like he was going to say something useful but then shrugged. "Anyway, it sucks to be you. Your brother is waking up."

And just like that it was if Dean's entire conversation with Crowley didn't matter as all of his attention was focused on his brother. Dean didn't even care that he was turning his back on a demon, Sam was more important...and really even he believed Crowley wouldn't try anything. He removed Sam's eye patch as he ran a cool washcloth over his brother's sweaty face.

"Hey Sammy." Dean said quietly as Sam's eyes flickered open. "You feeling okay?"

Sam looked surprisingly alert, and a lot better than Dean had expected. Apparently even with his weaknesses, Sam tended to heal quickly.

"Yeah...just sore...god that hurt..." Sam moaned a bit and buried his head into his pillow.

Dean managed a small chuckle, feeling incredibly relieved. "Yeah, you had me pretty worried for a while there kiddo."

Sam must have heard the crack in Dean's voice because his expression suddenly held adoration and his good eye sparkled. "Hey, you gotta remember Dean...it will hurt like Hell...and it will weaken me, but no matter how much alcohol they pour on me...it's not gonna kill me. I'm going to be alright." He smiled and held a shaky hand up to pat his older brother's shoulder.

"Well this is all so beautiful but I really think that if I spend one more minute in this room, my dinner will end up all over the floor."

Sam's head shot up then as much as it could and stared at Crowley with his mouth open. He must have been really out of it to not notice Crowley had been in the room. Usually Sam's mojo powers could sense a demon from twenty miles away.

"What's he doing...what?" Sam stuttered and that made Dean laugh again.

"Believe it or not he showed up and saved our asses from the hunters."

"Really?"

"Oh come on, is it that hard to believe now?" Crowley rolled his eyes.

"Well...uh...maybe..." Sam drifted off for a moment. "I'm hungry."

"What the hell Sam?" Dean asked at the random question.

"What? I can't help it. I'm starved."

"You'll be fine by yourself? I can go through a fast food place that's opened at night."

"Just stay with the big baby, I'll go grab something."

Both brother's stopped and turned to face the demon.

"Wow, that's awfully nice of you." Sam said and apparently Crowley took that as an insult.

"Shut the hell up." He growled, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. "The only reason I'm doing this for you imbeciles is because I'm starving. So look somewhere else before I decide to blind your other bloody eye." And with that he proceeded to storm out of the motel.

"Wait..." Sam blurted out, his eyes on Crowley. "Thank you...for saving us."

Crowley rolled his eyes and to Dean's surprise spoke up. "You know there was another reason why I didn't let you two die. When I came asking for help both of you could have brushed me off. Hell, the yeti here could have exorcised or killed me in a second; I'm a bloody demon for goodness sakes. But for some reason you two dim wads listened to me and actually agreed. Even with my ego I can say that I was not expecting that. So I felt like I owed you two a favor."

"Thank you." Dean finally spluttered out.

"I wouldn't get used to it, if I were you." Crowley said before walking out the door and shutting it.

For some reason, Dean was certain that was a lie.

With his attention fully on his brother now, Dean wrapped his large shaking form in blankets.

"You doing alright Sammy?"

"God, yes I'm fine. I told you I just feel weak and my whole body stings. But I _am_ confused."

"About what?"

"Why in the world did Crowley just happen to teleport to us? He didn't know we were in trouble obviously...so what was his reason for visiting us?"

It was then when Dean realized he had never gotten the reason out of the demon, Crowley had efficiently changed to subject and was careful never to bring it up.

"If you can believe it Sammy...I just think he didn't want to be alone on Christmas."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, he is coming back here instead of leaving. And he's too embarrassed or ashamed to admit it."

That was just too much, as both brothers burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"Okay." Dean said after five minutes, wiping the tears from his eyes. "We better stop before Crowley come back and sees us or he actually _will_ kill us."

Sam giggled in response, holding onto his body which was aching from pain and laughter. "This wasn't how I planned to spend my Christmas, but Hell, I'll take it! Merry Christmas Dean."

Dean smiled brightly for his brother, a glimmer of life and true happiness in his eyes. It was times like these where he could forget everything but him and Sam, go back to the pure innocence of his life.

"Merry Christmas Sammy."


	10. Chapter 10

_Here's the next chapter everyone. This one deals with Dean's birthday. I might only have one more chapter dealing with Sam's, since I'm running out of ideas. If anyone can think of anything let me know! Thanks for the reviews!_

* * *

It was the day before Dean's birthday and he could easily say he was starting to get a bit pissed off. They had taken up a case in the small, kind of run-down town of Williams, Arizona and Dean was fine with that, he really was. But the thing that was starting to irk him was that Sam hadn't said a thing about his birthday at all. Sure, they had been through a hell of a lot the past year or two but every time Sam would at least acknowledge his birthday, buy him a new gun or something. But this time it was as if Sam was completely oblivious, chatting about the hunt and how gas prices were finally going down.

Dean tried not to think ill of Sam, he really tried. Their relationship was the best it had ever been in...well their whole life. They finally understood each other but knew each other's limits as well. There were no more secrets between the two of them and while they still fought, it was about stupid little things like turning the music up too loud or not picking up after yourself, not drastic apocalyptic fights. Dean didn't want to get mad at Sam about the whole birthday thing, he tried to reason with himself that there had been too much on their minds for so long and maybe Sam just simply forgot. They were getting along so well, it's not like Sam purposely forgot about Dean's birthday and really...what did his birthday really matter? It was just a stupid day. But it was enough for Dean to feel angry. Their birthdays were supposed to be a day of basically celebrating the other person and feeling grateful for them...Sam forgetting almost made Dean feel that Sam wasn't grateful to have Dean in his life.

It was ridiculous and he shouldn't feel that way at all, he knew how much Sam cared for him and loved him but he had been looking forward to this day. Finally having a birthday to share with his brother that wasn't full of drama and depression. He didn't even want anything, just a 'Happy Birthday Dean' from Sam and maybe...if he dared say it a hug or just watching some stupid movie together and laughing. Yeah...laughing, he wanted a lot of that on his birthday.

But it didn't look like things were going to go that way.

"So these kids kinda have gone missing over the course of a year and..." Sam was blabbing on and on, showing Dean ripped newspaper articles with little kid's faces on them.

"The last murder was over two months ago Sam. Don't you think whatever killed them or took them is long gone by now?"

"I don't think so. I mean there's a good chance it's still here. I called Bobby and he said that we should look into the case, he thinks there might be something here we can work with."

For some reason Sam's anticipation for this case was making Dean even more angry.

"Sam, I thought we said we'd lay low on the hunts. Only do the ones that we can't ignore." He was trying really, really hard not to get into an argument.

Dean watched as Sam flinched and frowned and realized after a moment what must have caused it. Dean never called his little brother Sam anymore, the only times he did were when he was verging on a fight or when he was angry. Any other time he was Sammy...and Sam must have caught onto this.

"You okay Dean?" Sam asked, he seemed genuinely confused and while every fiber in Dean's told him to scream out 'You forgot my birthday, you dumbass' he settled for shrugging. He really shouldn't be assuming Sam forgot his birthday before the actual day, but Dean couldn't help feeling forgotten. Sam always made a big deal about Dean's birthday days in advance, even if they weren't getting along at the time.

"I don't know I guess I'm just irritated."

Sam nodded and then got this sneaky little grin on his face; he suddenly pulled the Impala into the nearest fast-food restaurant.

"What...?"

"You're always irritated when you're hungry. I'll pick you up some nice greasy burger and a coke, alright?"

Dean just nodded, again surprised by Sam's willingness to go in. And when Sam jumped out without asking Dean to come in with him, the older brother was even more at loss. Sam hardly ever went in a public place by himself. Whether it was the eye patch, the missing fingers, the fact he wasn't human anymore or some post-apocalyptic weird symptom Dean would never know. But Sam always would have Dean join him, not wanting to be alone around other people and this time not only did Sam go in alone but he seemed nearly eager to.

Whatever the reason Sam came out with a bag that contained a burger, fries and much to Dean's delight a mini pie dessert. It made things a little bit better. Even if Sam forgot his birthday he remembered to bring him some pie. He managed a small smile as Sam handed him his cup of coke, some of his apatite returned as he began to eat.

However he didn't get far as he suddenly realized how tired he was. Dean fell asleep without even touching his pie.

The first thing Dean realized as he started to wake up was just how groggy he felt. It was like his eyes were glued shut as he tried with effort to open them and when he finally did, all he wanted to do was fall asleep again. After a few minutes Dean's eyes finally adjusted and he saw that he was still in the Impala. The air conditioning was cranked on but Sam wasn't in the driver's seat. Looking out the window he saw they were parked in front of a rather nicer looking hotel. The bags were gone, which meant Sam must have gone to drop them off in the room. Dean called his phone and in a minute Sam was at the passenger side door.

"I tried to wake you up when I went to check in but you were out cold." Sam told him and grabbed onto Dean as he stumbled while getting out of the car. "You alright?"

Dean just grunted, for the first time he noticed that it was just past sunrise. When he had fallen asleep it had been dusk. Sam must have noticed his expression.

"It's Monday Dean. You slept a long time."

It was Monday. It was his birthday. Looking up at his brother, Dean was now certain that Sam didn't know what day it was. He was just staring at Dean with that annoying concerned puppy-dog expression, his eye patch was off and hell, even his blind eye looked confused, Sam was completely clueless.

"I'm fine." Dean grunted out, happy that he got anger into his tone. "Which is our room?"

"214." Was all that Sam said and Dean followed him into the building. Once they got to the room Sam went to grab the key out of his pocket but dropped it because the idiot only had three fingers on that hand and apparently hadn't gotten that used to it by then.

"Oh come on." Dean seethed and not so gracefully pushed Sam out of the way and picked up the key himself. He jammed it into the doorknob and swung the door open, happy when it happened to hit Sam but as soon as he walked into the room his heart stopped.

Sam had pushed the small dining table so it was more in the center of the room. On top of that table there were five pies. As Dean got closer he saw that the one in the middle had 'Happy Birthday Dean!' written on it with frosting, another had 32 for his age on it, one had 'jerk' written on it in big block letters, the one in the back had something sticking out of it and the last one he saw had a big black blob of black frosting on it.

"What the hell is that?" He asked, clearing his throat to find his voice as he pointed at the blob pie. He looked up at his brother who had a shit-splitting grin on but when Dean asked he turned bright red.

"It's supposed to be the Impala." He muttered and right then Dean felt his eyes water up. When he realized he couldn't talk without crying he walked right up to his Sasquatch of a brother and wrapped his arms around him. Sam let out a surprised laugh and hugged him back. Dean tightened his hold; he wasn't even going to feel embarrassed today and hugged Sam for a whole minute before he pulled away.

"Thank you Sammy." Dean grinned, the tears pushed away for the moment.

Sam blushed yet again and fidgeted. "Sorry about the Impala, I tried but I was never a good drawer to begin with. And sorry about the mess, it was kind of difficult to bake with my hand and not being able to see out of one eye..." Sam pointed to the mini kitchen where there was pots and pans scattered all over, flour and sugar and even eggs on the ground.

"Sammy." Dean interrupted him by laying a hand on his shoulder. "Shut your trap, it's perfect, it really is. And hell, I thought you forgot about my birthday."

Sam got that confused look on his face again. "You did? So that's why you were in a pissy mood. Geeze Dean, I'm sorry, I didn't even realize you could have taken it that way. I was just waiting to surprise you."

Dean was starting to catch on to something. "Wait a second...the hunt...was that all made up?"

Sam smiled. "Not exactly. It was a real hunt, but one that Bobby dealt with weeks ago. Oh and I but sleeping pills in your soft drink so I could get all this done without you interupting."

"Sneaky, sneaky Sammy, never knew you had it in 'ya. But why even make it up? What was the reason that we had to get here? There are lots of hotels that have mini kitchens; you could have gone to any one."

Sam sighed. "Look what I put in the last pie Dean."

Dean had been wondering why Sam would stick a piece of paper into the pie. He walked over and took out what happened to be a brochure. Looking at it, he saw that it was all about the Grand Canyon and when he opened another flap two small pieces of paper fell out. Tickets to a tour of the canyon.

It was at that moment when Dean decided he had the best brother in the world. Well, he had already known that but this just remided him of that fact.

He gave up trying to hold his tears back this time and openly let them fall, walking up to his brother to give him yet another hug.

"Man Sammy, just when I think you can't get more awesome...you prove me wrong. He pulled back, grinning wide.

"Sorry I didn't really get buy you anything, I wasn't sure what you wanted and then I got this idea and..."

"Don't you learn anything? Sammy, I would have been perfectly happy with just spending time with you on my birthday, that's all I wanted, and a bit of recognition. And then you go and do all this for me. Really, it means a lot. You baked my favorite food and got me tickets to the one thing I've been dying to see."

Sam shrugged again. "I wanted to show you what you meant to me."

Okay, now it was starting to get a bit too girly. "Well, you showed me bitch. Now I'm stuck thinking about how I'm going to top this for your birthday."

Sam smiled back. "Well you better start planning now, and start eating your pies jerk. I didn't labor over them for hours just for them to go bad."


	11. Chapter 11

_Hey everyone! Here is the final chapter of this story. I know I said I'd write about Sam's birthday, but I realized that I was already using big time jumps and I didn't want to skip over too much time. So I wrapped up this story with this chapter. However, Sam's birthday will eventually come because I'm going to write a sequel to this story. Instead of time jumps it's going to be more like a normal story with a plot. This story how the brother's fixed their relationship over time and now it's on to their next adventure basically. So I hope you enjoyed this story and will continue to read onto the next, let me know your thoughts :)_

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"Come on Sammy; hurry your ass up already." Dean groaned to his brother. They had just returned back from the movie theatre and were standing a few doors down from their motel when Sam had insisted that he wanted a Coke from the motel's soda machine.

"Just go down to the room Dean, geeze I'll be fine for two minutes." Sam muttered as he counted the leftover change in his pocket.

"It's not about that." Dean said, even though that was a lie. Part of the reason why Dean didn't want to go down alone was because he hated leaving his brother, if only for few minutes. As far as Dean was concerned, they didn't need any more time spent away from each other and he felt that if he left his brother for only the slightest instance, he may be snatched away from Dean all over again.

But there was another reason why Dean just wouldn't go down and leave Sam outside alone. He couldn't help but feel that something was about to go horribly wrong. Dean shivered as a cold just of wind blew past him and he looked out across the parking lot. It was pitch black outside save for the few lights from the motel and the occasional streetlight he could see on the highway. They were in the middle of nowhere, a motel basically surrounded on all sides by fields other than a forest to their left. A forest that looked extremely creepy with their bare branches and the piles of dead leaves littering the ground which were left over from fall. Dean tried to tell himself he was imagining things, but he just couldn't shake off the feeling. The wind picked up again, creating a howling noise which rustled the leaves on the forest floor, the branches swaying. So freaking creepy. And worst of all Sam seemed oblivious to it all.

"Sam, really. I have this really weird feeling and I do not like it at all. Let's get back to the room." _And lay down a bunch of salt lines while we're at it..._

"Okay Dean, just a minute...I almost have enough..." Sam tried digging in his other pocket with his bad hand and ended up dropping his change all over the ground. "Shit..."

"Sam, I have a dollar. Stop trying to be so independent and just take obviously aren't able to use your hand well enough for this so stop trying to prove to me that you can." Dean sighed and that earned him an angry and hurt glare from Sam, even though what Dean said was true. This wasn't the time for Sam to practice handling his change.

"Listen, I'm sorry." Dean tried again. "Just please...can we go back to the room...please..." He sounded like a whiny and scared two year old but Dean could care less right now.

Sam must have noticed something was up because his expression softened dramatically. "Yeah. Okay Dean. Just give me that dollar."

Dean nodded and fished through his wallet. But before he could get it out suddenly Sam had a firm grip on his arm and was dragging Dean down the motel room in a sprint.

"You're right. Shit Dean, you're right. Something is wrong. Something is really really wrong."

Dean shoved his wallet back. "What? Sam, what is it?"

And then, as if on cue the few lights that lit the motel started flickering on and off. Dean felt his heart drop to his stomach.

"Demons." Sam swallowed as he flung them both toward the door. "They're coming! Hurry, Dean! Get the key!"

Dean knew they were too late. Before he could even reach for the key he felt another presence behind them. Dean swallowed, prepared to protect his brother until the death as he turned around.

Dean couldn't believe his eyes. "What the hell!"

Standing just two feet from the brothers was Crowley. The demon was not only covered in blood from head to toe but his clothes were practically torn to shreds, his arm bent at a nearly impossible angle, his eyes were nearly swollen shut and his nose was broken.

And even from the horrible nature of the demon's appearance, Dean was still expecting some snarky remark to come flowing from his mouth.

But all that Crowley managed to say was a whispered "Help" as he began to crumple to the ground. Before Dean could even realize what he was doing, he ran over and caught the demon before he fell.

"Sammy quick, grab the key in my left pocket." Dean grunted out as he hoisted Crowley up as much as he could manage, throwing one of his arm's over Crowley's shoulder.

Sam did as he was told and looked at Dean with panicked eyes. "There's more! Shit Dean, there's so many more coming. Crowley wouldn't have led them here would he...?"

Dean could hear the doubt in his brother's voice and knew what Sam was thinking. Crowley could be putting on an act just to lead all these demons to the brothers when they were most vulnerable. Dean almost dropped Crowley right there on the sidewalk but there was just a part of him that couldn't believe Crowley would do such a thing. What would he gain by leading other demons to the Winchesters? All the demons were after Crowley unless he used the brothers as a bargaining chip to spare his own life...

Dean almost came to that conclusion but then something clicked. "No, they're after _him _Sammy. I think they tried to kill him or something so he came to us, now the demons are following him here, they probably don't have a clue that we're here as well." The whole reason Crowley had kept in contact with the Winchesters was to come to them when demons were on his trail, and now he was in deep trouble.

Sam seemed to believe the same thing that Dean did because he quickly turned around and unlocked the door before he hurried inside. Dean was right after him but as he tried to drag Crowley in too, he suddenly couldn't push the demon any further.

"Come on Dean, they're nearly on top of us!" Sam screamed, obviously not seeing that Dean was stuck in his own state of panic.

"I can't!" Dean yelled back. "I can't move him anymore, I'm literally stuck here!"

Sam's eye went wide and in a second he bent down on the ground. Dean felt ridiculously stupid as he watched Sam break the salt line at the door, allowing the demon to enter. Shit, why hadn't he realized that? Dean stumbled in and placed the moaning Crowley on the ground as he grabbed one of the salt bags and Sam took the other.

"I'll fix the door and get the bathroom window!" Dean called to his brother. "You get the two windows in the front."

Both brothers went to work and it only took them mere seconds from years of practice. Dean told Sam to pour extra just in case and the brothers double checked that there were no small breaks before they moved Crowley onto one of the beds.

"They're nearly here Dean. I can feel them." Sam whispered as they knelt down on the floor near the bed Crowley was occupying.

Dean placed a hand on Sam's shoulder and moved his younger brother closer to him; he didn't remove his hand even after the gesture was completed.

"We're safe though Sammy, remember that. They can't get us in here, there's nothing they can do."

Sam nodded and turned his attention to the demon lying on their bed. "You know, every hunter instinct inside of me is saying we should kill him while he's down. That it's the worst thing to have a demon trapped here in this room with us. But really...I don't feel threatened by him at all. And I can't say why exactly but I just don't want to kill him, I don't see any sense in it."

Dean nodded; he understood how Sam felt completely. "It does go against everything we know and have learned. I actually think I understand him in a way...maybe because of my time in Hell. Do I believe he is a good demon? Hell no, there is no such thing. But is he downright evil? I'm not so sure. But what I _do_ know is that he's on our side and he poses no threat to us."

"Yeah." Sam agreed. "What if they try to like summon him or something? Crowley wouldn't be forced out because he's trapped here right?"

"They could try all they want but it wouldn't work. If a demon is trapped by a barrier, either a devil's trap or salt barrier, he can't be summoned out of it. So both us and him are safe."

"Okay...okay, good..." Sam nodded before his face went pale. "Oh god...they're here! Shit!"

"What? Where are they?"

"I don't have see-through vision Dean!"

"You can feel them can't you?" Dean asked his clearly panicking brother.

"Well, yeah...but I..." Sam couldn't finish as his trembling became worse. Dean cursed himself for not paying attention to Sam's well-being quicker; he had forgotten how frightened Sam got around demons these days. Dean grabbed his brother gently by the shoulders and spun Sam around so he faced away from the door and towards Dean.

"Sammy, it's going to be alright. We're safe as long as we're in this room. Now what we have to do is calm down so we can judge what kind of situation we're in, okay?" He informed Sam, rubbing his hands up and down Sam's forearms, trying to show comfort.

Sam nodded, relaxing at Dean's touch, after a moment he took a deep breath, his eyes never leaving his older brother's face. "I can feel them all around us; I think they're surrounding the room. At least I think so because he..." Sam waved a hand at Crowley's still-prone form on the bed. "Is throwing off my senses."

"Okay." Dean nodded. Sam was calmer, but he still seemed off, his face set in an unreadable almost blank expression. "Now let's wait for Crowley to come out of it, see what he thinks about this and we'll decide our next move from there."

They stayed sitting there for a moment, not a sound other than the movements of the demons outside.

"I know Lucifer wasn't a demon." Sam said suddenly, now looking anywhere but Dean. "But when he possessed me...it felt a hundred times worse than being possessed by Meg."

"Sammy..."

"It was bad Dean, and I wouldn't be one to complain, but man...it was horrible. I think maybe because demons...while they're evil...they really don't have a choice. What they do and who they are is their nature. But with Lucifer, he had a choice, he...he may be an angel but there was so much evil inside of him, I felt like I would explode. He chose to become that way and I think that's what made him the worst of the worst. A being that created so much death, destruction and pain and Hell...and he was inside of me...he felt like a hundred demons all rolled into one. I can't even describe how much pain he was making me feel, like I was the worst piece of shit on the planet..."

Dean stared at his brother, a lump lodged in his throat. He wanted to ask Sam a million questions, the main one being 'Why didn't you tell me this earlier.' But Dean knew from his own experiences that you can't come back from a traumatic experience and blurt out everything that happened. Sam had needed time, needed to feel comfortable around Dean again and know that his older brother wouldn't judge him.

Dean had been to Hell and back, sure. But he never had to deal with the devil owning his body while his soul was still inside. At least when Dean had been getting tortured he could retreat back into his mind to escape the pain, Sam probably wasn't even allowed that comfort because Lucifer was controlling everything.

There weren't any words he could possibly say to Sam to make him feel any better. But Dean knew that Sam didn't want any words. He just wanted someone to confide in, someone to listen and still accept him when everything was said and done.

"Is that why you seem so nervous around demons now?" Dean asked, hoping it wouldn't upset Sam any more.

Sam nodded, his face growing paler. "It's like every time I see one I'm afraid I'm going to get possessed, and I know it wouldn't be as bad as Lucifer but still..."

"Hey..." Dean pulled his brother against his chest in a tight embrace. Feeling how Sam's body nearly went limp and sagged against him showed Dean just how much this frightened his brother. The poor guy didn't deserve any more pain, didn't deserve any of the shit that was thrown at him these past years just because of one yellow eyed demon's plan to unleash Lucifer. But now Lucifer was rotting in Hell, it was all over so Sam's pain deserved to be over as well. Dean tightened his hold for a minute before pulling away, feeling ferociously protective.

"Are you feeling uncomfortable because of him at all?" Dean asked, pointing to Crowley. "Because if you're getting a bad feeling at all, I won't hesitate for a second to throw him out to those demons."

Sam eye shined with admiration as he took in Dean's determined voice. "You'd do that for me?"

"Of course. I'll do it right now." Dean said as he grabbed Crowley by the shoulders and began pulling him off of the bed, only stopping because of Sam's sudden laughter.

"Dean! Dude, what are you doing?" Sam's smile was wide, all traces of his former distress gone.

"I'm getting rid of him for you."

"What? No! I think you might want to keep the few allies we have alive, don't you agree?"

"But you said..." Dean backpedaled, letting go of Crowley and letting him fall limp on the bed once again.

"I asked if you'd actually do that for me...meaning if I actually felt that way about Crowley, you'd get rid of him. But seriously, he's an exception and for the most part an ally."

"You're positive he doesn't make you uncomfortable or scared or anything? Because your feelings come first man no matter who or what is the cause of them."

Sam smiled, touched by his brother's confession. "I'm sure Dean. Really, he's fine. If anything he protects us."

"Well I guess I owe Bigfoot here my life. And to think that I once thought you didn't like me...I should have known that you had a thing for me all along."

Both brothers turned to face Crowley, to see that some of his injuries had healed quite a bit.

Sam scrunched up his face. "I...wait, what?"

"Oh come on darling, there's no use in denying your love for me any longer."

Sam looked as if he was about to puke. "You're disgusting."

"I only speak the truth."

"Alright quit it." Dean tried to sound serious and not crack up laughing at the banter.

"Ooh, getting bossy there Dean, are we? I got to say that I like it."

This time Dean couldn't stifle the short burst of laughter that came from his mouth. Crowley looked absolutely ridiculous spewing out snarky remarks while he was lying bleeding and broken on the motel bed. The demon seemed completely at ease in a room full of hunters that could kill him in a heartbeat while he was so vulnerable. It should be sad that it's gotten this far, that a demon could feel safe around them but Dean didn't find it anything but hilarious.

"Well, glad to know that one person still likes my jokes, I guess I haven't lost my touch after all." Crowley proclaimed with a grin that caused Sam to groan.

"Trust me, it wasn't your lame ass jokes that I found funny. And you don't seem to be in the best state to be making jokes."

Dean wasn't sure if it was possible for demon's blood flow to slow, but he swore that Crowley suddenly turned pale.

Dean felt the atmosphere in the room shift abruptly and he shivered, and eerie feeling falling over him. "What happened to you?" He asked the demon, his voice quiet.

Crowley looked up, locking his gaze with Dean and he almost gasped at the amount of pain filling the demon's eyes.

"I think you have a good idea." It was the quietest Dean had ever heard Crowley speak, and yet he felt chilled to the bone.

"The demons..." Sam suddenly butted in only to be glared at by Crowley.

"They found me. For days they tortured me. Hung me from the wall on chains like I was some bloody pig. They did things to me that no pathetic human could imagine...well except for your brother..."

Sam turned to Dean, his face and expression of horror.

"Like Hell..."

"Oh it was even worse, gigantor." Crowley huffed. "This time I was in a real body. It makes the pain ten times more intense. Even though I'm trapped in this body that mends itself, every body has its pain limits unlike in Hell."

Dean shivered at the demon's words. If Hell had been so unbearable...he couldn't even imagine his body and soul being tortured at the same time on earth. And with Crowley, his body would heal back up, so it must have been a never-ending cycle of the worst pain imaginable.

"Why don't you just poof yourself out of here?" Dean asked him in a quiet voice. "Maybe they wouldn't be able to follow you?"

Crowley seemed to grow pale again. "First of all it's not called poofing, you imbecile. It's called teleporting. Or if you're a Harry Potter fan, apparating. I do not _poof._"

Dean shook his head and tried to keep from laughing at the way Sam had lit up over the Harry Potter reference. "Okay so why don't you _apparate _your ass out of here?"

"Because I can't!" Crowley growled, irritation and desperation strong in his voice. He ripped open the remnants of his shirt to reveal a very bloody and messy sigil carved into his chest. "They took it away from me! Not only did they torture me and confine me in a devil's trap but carved this." He waved at his chest. "Into me! You know what it does? It prevents me from leaving this body! Not only that, but it has taken away my ability to _poof _anywhere! So if I am about to be killed by who knows what, I can neither leave the body or the area other than running the heck away!"

Dean stared at Crowley, not understanding his ramblings. He glanced over at Sam who simply shrugged. Crowley threw a couple sentences at them and just expected them both to understand everything that had happened to him in the past few days.

"Uh, so why don't you break the symbol?" Sam dared to ask.

Crowley's face was bright red now. "I CAN'T! Once it's engraved onto me no demon can physically break it."

"Then what's the freakin' point of it!" Dean rubbed at his eyes, trying to make sense of all this.

"Because. Now they have me trapped. They put this symbol into me in case I managed to escape. That way when they find me again I can't just teleport away."

"Then why don't we break it, we're not demons!" Dean actually grabbed his knife and started heading towards Crowley, only stopping once he saw the look of absolute terror on his face.

"No!" Crowley yelled, flinging a pillow over his chest, as if that could stop Dean from his task. "You can't. That's what makes this so horrible. If it gets broken then I'm sent back to Hell. So I'm either stuck here in this body for all eternity or I get sucked back down to that fiery garbage pit."

"Heh, nice way to describe it." Dean sat down on the other bed and stared across the room at nothing. Just lovely. They were trapped in a room surrounded by an ocean of demons and now had to deal with the burden which was Crowley. It was either break that mark right now and never have to deal with him again or let him continue to use both brothers as an island of safety.

Dean picked up the knife, twirling it in his hands. He'd even be doing Crowley a favor by releasing him from the body he was trapped in. But in going back to Hell, how could that be considered a favor? To be tortured day in and day out and if Crowley was sent down there, he would for sure never be able to escape. His stint in helping defeat the devil had granted him eternal torment.

Dean thought back to Lenore, the friendly vampire, if you could call her friendly...she was more like civil. That was the first time Dean didn't kill something supernatural when he had the chance. He had let her live because she didn't deserve to die. And did Crowley...while he may be a demon and evil he was an ally, he did save their lives. Did Crowley deserve to spend the rest of forever in a burning maddening pit full of death and hate?

The answer came much quicker than he expected and way too easily that it scared him. The answer was no.

Dean tossed his blade back under his pillow.

Dean could hear Crowley's breath of relief before Sam spoke up.

"If you can't apparate, then how the hell did you wind up at our motel room door?"

If looks could kill, Crowley's scowl would have both brothers dead in an instant. "Must I explain every damn thing to you two? Not all demons can teleport like I could. But remember that little tracking device I told you about? That's right; it's still in your precious little car. They are very hard to come by but any demon can possess one. Those tracking devices contain their own power, which allows the owner to teleport to the location of the device."

"So you can only teleport to us because of that tracking coin?" Sam asked.

"Now you're getting it princess. It's also how the demons followed me here; they managed to scrum up a device." He dug around in his pocket before tossing the coin on the ground. "You may want to burn that."

"Great." Sam grumbled, his face falling. "So we're all stuck here. I guess we need to call Bobby and ask him to get up here."

"Bobby?" Crowley let out a loud laugh. "Are you insane? Do you know how many demons are out there?" At Sam and Dean's blank stare he groaned. "Go ahead, take a look out that window, they won't bite...well as long as you don't break that salt line..."

Dean turned to face his little brother, seeing the unmasked panic clearly written on his face. He walked over and grabbed Sam's shaking arm in a show of support and led them both over to the window. Taking a deep breath Dean slowly opened the curtains.

Dean's mouth fell open in shock, unable to form any words. He couldn't even move when Sam stumbled backwards and fell flat on his butt, making this odd frightened noise at the back of his throat.

"Surprise!" Crowley called out in an overly-cheery voice and Dean really thought the demon was in no condition to be cracking jokes at the moment.

It was like an ocean of demons that flooded the area around the motel. As far as he could see...not that he could see much though, there were demons standing as close as two inches to the window, blocking much of Dean's view, their breath almost visible against the glass.

Dean violently closed the blinds and knelt down next to his brother.

"Now you see? Like that old fart Bobby could take down dozens of demons!"

"All of them followed you here?"

"I am..._was_ a pretty powerful demon. It took a lot to get me down." He said, waving the hand of his uninjured arm to the demons outside.

"Okay, so why didn't they just send you back to Hell then? Or kill you instead of wasting time by torturing you?"

"First of all, not many demons know how to kill a fellow demon. And I think they were hoping that if I managed to escape they could follow my trail and it would lead them to you two. That way they could kill us all in one go."

Sam's breathing evened out enough and he managed to shrug free of Dean's hands. "We're screwed then. Is that what you're trying to say?"

Crowley smirked and Dean knew he wasn't going to like what came out of his mouth next.

"I don't believe so. If I recall, you toasted those demons back in that house. So all you need to do Sammy, is conjure up the force within you and send the little buggards packing."

Sam sneered "Don't call me Sammy."

Crowley ignored him. "So, what'da you say?"

Sam opened his mouth to protest but before he could say anything Dean butted in.

"I say go for it."

Crowley grinned. "That's the spirit!"

"Whoa...wait a second Dean!" Sam spun Dean around to face him, his eyes wide. "You can't be serious. I don't even know how I did it last time; all I know is that I was angry. And anyway, it was only one demon! Who knows if I could do that again!"

"Did it hurt you last time you did it?" Dean asked him.

"Well, no...it didn't..."

"Then what's there to lose?"

"Why can't we just exorcise them?"

"Too many." Crowley butted in. "Besides you wouldn't be loud enough to get all of them."

"So that leaves only one option." Dean pointed out.

"But I don't know how to do it!

"Last time you said you got angry...well I guess just get angry again. Think about how mad you are at these demons and uh...let it rip."

"That was a wonderful expression Dean." Came Crowley's chuckle at which Sam glared over at him.

"What about you? If I try to exorcise or kill them...you're close within my range, wouldn't I kill you too?"

"Don't start getting any ideas." Crowley winked. "I'm trapped in this body, remember? It's going to hurt like Hell, because my soul will be screaming to be ripped out, but I won't be going anywhere."

"And you really want me doing this?" Sam looked at Dean. "You aren't afraid of the powers?"

Dean smiled softly. "Don't you remember me telling you how cool they were? And Sammy, these are totally different; they're not dangerous because you're not being fueled by anything evil. I can tell that you're in control of the powers, not the powers controlling you. There's nothing to be afraid of."

Sam nodded, blushing a bit. "Alright then, here goes nothing." He shared one final look with Dean before he walked over to the door, his head bowed.

A few minutes went by without Sam moving.

"The hell is he doing?" Crowley whispered in an angry voice, causing Dean to throw a pillow at him and mouth 'shut the hell up'.

Luckily for both their sakes it didn't take much longer as Sam looked up, the eye that wasn't hidden behind his patch shining that fascinating shade. Sam held out his hand and the next thing Dean knew the room was filled with Crowley's screams.

It was strange and unlike anything Dean had ever seen. Dean didn't know much about Sam's powers but he did know that his brother was extremely powerful if he had killed that demon before with such ease. And here was Crowley, Sam's powers being used on him, clawing and tearing at his soul that was confined by a spell to stay put in the body he inhabited. Not even in Hell did Dean experience anything like that and he couldn't even begin to fathom how painful it must be. Without thinking too much, Dean ran to the bed Crowley had withering and screaming on and leaned his arms against Crowley's chest, trying to keep him still.

"Crowley! Hey! Relax, you're not going anywhere, ride through it." Dean bit his lip after he spoke, trying to ignore the fact that he had just attempted to comfort a demon.

And then it was over and the screams stopped. Sam turned around, his eye still glimmering and shrugged with a sheepish smile on his face. He looked so completely innocent and timid that Dean had to laugh. It was much different than the Sam who had been high on demon blood and it filled Dean with joy to know that his brother's powers were safe.

"Well, did it work?" He asked at which Sam shrugged again.

"I'm afraid to check." Sam replied and then looked over at Crowley with what could pass as a frightened look. "Is he alright?"

Dean just then turned to inspect the damage and cringed. Crowley was shaking uncontrollably, his eyes unfocused and his meat suit's skin a scary ashen color as well as sweating profusely.

And Dean realized that somewhere deep inside him, if only just a little piece…was hoping that the demon would be okay.

Dean sighed, trying to push past the soft spot he had from watching someone in pain suffering, a trait that he had gained since his time in hell that he couldn't seem to break. "This better have worked."

Without wasting any more time, Dean marched over to the window and flung open the blinds.

There looked to be only about half of the hosts on the ground, the rest remained standing in attention. And Sam looked wiped out, there was no way he would be able to get rid of the rest before the demons called in more reinforcements.

"We're going to die here." Dean croaked out,

"No you won't."

Out of the blue Dean felt a strange yet familiar presence in the room. He slowly turned upon hearing Sam's gasp.

Standing in the middle of the room was Castiel, the shadow of his wings illuminated like the first day Dean met him.

The angel didn't even blink as he flung his hand out in a sweeping motion. "I have sent them away from here." Castiel informed them as he looked down at the tracking device Crowley had laid on the floor. With a blink of an eye it was sent up in flames before disintegrating.

Dean stared with wide eyes at the angel and then over to his brother who looked just as confused as he was.

"Cas?"

The angel looked over to him. "I wanted to apologize to you and your brother for how I have been acting." His voice still holding the same authority. "I realized that I was wrong for not continuing to help you and now I am in need of your help."

The brother's looked at one another and Dean cocked an eyebrow.

"And why would that be?"

"I have been kicked out of heaven."


	12. Sequel

Hey everyone, if you were interested in reading a sequel to this story at all, I've just posted it as of 11/23/10. It's called **All Will Be Revealed. **:)

.net/s/6499391/1/All_Will_Be_Revealed

^put fanfiction before the .net


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